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THE 



STUDENT-LIFE OF GERMANY. 



THE 



STUDENT-LIFE OF GERMANY: 



BY WILLIAM HOWITT, 

AUTHOR OF " THE RURAL LIFE OF ENGLAND," " BOOK OF THE SEASONS," ETC. 



FROM THE UNPUBLISHED MS. OF DR. CORNELIUS. 



CONTAINING NEARLY FORTY OF THE 



MOST FAMOUS STUDENT SONGS. 




think oft, ye brethren ; 

think of the gladness of our youthful prime, <v^ 

it cometh not again, that golden time ! \. 

The Commers Book. 



PHILADELPHIA : 

CAREY AND HART. 



MDCCCXLII. 



kftll 



A^ftl 



C. Sherman & Co. Printers, 19 St. James Street. 

« 



" How shall I call thee, thou high, thou rough, thou noble, thou barbaric, 
thou loveable, unharmonious, song-full, repelling, yet refreshing life of the 
Burschen years 1 How shall I describe you, ye golden hours, ye choral- 
songs of brotherly love 1 What tone shall I give to you to make myself 
understood? What colours to thee, thou never-comprehended chaos? I 
shall describe thee 1 Never ! Thy ludicrous outside lies open ; the layman 
sees that ; one can describe that to him ; but thy inner and lovely ore, the 
miner only knows who goes singing with his brethren into the deep shaft. 
He brings up gold ; pure, solid gold ; be it much or little, it is still of high 
value. But this is not his whole booty. What he sees there, he may not 
describe to the layman : it were all too strange, and too precious for his 
ear. There are spirits in the deep that no other ear can comprehend ; no 
other eye perceive. Music floats through those halls, which to every 
uninitiated ear sounds empty and unmeaning. But to him who has felt 
with it and sung with it, it gives a peculiar consecration ; when he, more- 
over, smiles over the hole in his cap which he has brought back with him 
as a symbol. 

" Old Grandfather ! now know I what thou undertook when thou held 
thy annual, solitary, intercalary day ! Thou too hadst thy companions in 
the days of thy youth, and the water stood in thy gray eyelashes when 
thou marked one in thy stambook as entombed." 

Havff's Rathskeller in Bremen. 



PREFACE. 



We have had various peeps and snatches of the Student-life 
of Germany, from time to time, in our periodicals, but we have 
nothing like a complete, and faithful account of it. Some of 
those accounts- too, are by English writers, who had at best but 
a partial and passing view of this singular state of existence, 
and could not, however much they might have seen of it, enter 
into it and comprehend it with the fulness of apprehension and 
feeling which a native possesses. When I, therefore, was 
thrown, on my first visit to Germany, into the midst of its 
students, I began to inquire for a volume written by a German, 
which should lay open the whole interior of that, whose surface 
was so strange and so picturesque. I was told that no such 
thing, of any value or completeness existed, and that, indeed, 
the students themselves were jealous of the laws and customs 
of their ancient Burschendom being laid open to the public. 
Yet, finding myself amongst those whose knowledge and 
talents most entirely qualified them for making this exposition, 
I did not cease till I had prevailed on one of the most gifted to 
undertake the task, assisted by the experience of friends, who, 
like himself, had passed through the mysteries of this singular 
life. The present volume is the result ; and I present it to the 



viii PREFACE. 

public with the confident assurance, that whatever they may 
think of the portraiture, they may depend upon its faithfulness. 
Spite of what that young and popular writer, HaufF, has left 
on record in the extract which immediately precedes these 
remarks, we have now penetrated the depths of the Burschen- 
life ; we have traversed its chaos, which he terms a never- 
comprehended one ; and have made the music of its most 
hidden halls, audible and intelligible to all ears. I do not 
hesitate for a moment to assert, that, taken as a whole, this 
volume will be found to contain more that is entirely new and 
curious, than any one which has issued from the press for 
years. The institutions and customs which it describes, form 
the most singular state of social existence to be found in the 
bosom of civilized Europe ; and what renders them the more 
curious and worthy of investigation is, that they are no recent 
and evanescent frolic of eccentricity, but are as fast rooted into 
the antiquity of German mind and manners as the universities 
themselves. They have been modified and softened by time 
and advancing refinement, but are not a whit nearer being 
rooted out, apparently, than they were three hundred years 
ago. This state of things is here depicted by a German 
himself, who has passed through it ; and with that peculiar 
feeling and appreciation which a German only can possess. It 
is in this light that they are to be regarded. I do not here 
present myself as an advocate or a caviller at this scheme of 
things, but merely as a spectator, who, beholding something 
strange and curious, brings it to the observation of his country- 
men, in all truthfulness and simplicity of representation, that 
they may judge of it for themselves. It has been translated 
under the author's own eye, as it was written, and as he is also 
acquainted with the English language, it may be reasonably 
presumed to give a faithful transcript of his thoughts. 



PREFACE. ix 

The two features of this Student-life which will meet with 
the most repugnance in the English mind, are the Beer-duel, 
and the Sword-duel. I have no desire to defend, far less 
to recommend either. I am, though no advocate of a watery- 
suction, miscalled Temperance, neither a violent wine-bibber, 
nor " a fighting character." I do not even, like our worthy 
friend Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, while planning Niger ex- 
peditions of civilization, brew XXX in London ; nor, like 
many of my countrymen, while attending church, or chapel in 
England, insist on bombarding the Chinese because they wont 
be poisoned with my opium. I merely let the worthy and 
learned author tell his own tale ; and he, in telling it as a 
German and fellow-countryman of those concerned, assures us 
that these features are daily becoming more diminished by the 
progress of refinement. 

It is to be hoped that the publication of this volume may 
even hasten this desirable end, for no people are so much alive 
to the opinion of other nations as the Germans. One thing, 
however, as an Enghshman, I may say, which the author 
could not say — and that is, that when reading of the beer and 
sword duels of these students, we must take into account what 
are the weapons and the perils in both cases. We are not to 
suppose then, that their beer is any thing Hke the XXX just 
spoken of, or their wine like sherry or port, three-fourths 
brandy. No; they who know German wine, know that it is a 
very gentle and innocent, rather acidulous, and rather cooling 
fluid, and that their beer is far more mighty of the hop than of 
the malt. It is a well-bittered and amiable table-beer, which 
even Father Mathew might take as a healthy stomachic, and 
which one might rather expect, in Sam Weller's phrase, to 
make its swallowers " swell wisibly before our wery eyes," 
than grow riotous under its influence. When to this we add, 



^ PREFACE. 

that the sword-duel is rather a trial of skill in fencing than any 
thing dangerous, and that a scratch across the cheek, or prick 
into a stuffed jerkin, is in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred the 
worst of its accidents, fears on the subject diminish at a rapid 
rate. If, however, any one thinks these youths had better be at 
their books than crossing swords or swallowing choppins, I 
assure him I am quite of the same opinion ; and I here exhort the 
students, as soon as they get this volume, which they speedily 
will, to forsake the Hirschgasse and the Kneip, and follow the 
advice, but not the example of the English, Shall I advise them 
to imitate the students of Cambridge ? Let any one read " The 
Student-Life of Cambridge" in a late number of the Westminster 
Review, and say whether that would be reasonable. Shall I 
advise them to practise the vice and the mockeries which are 
practised there, by those who give the most public and promi- 
nent character to the social student-life of England — for it is 
not meant to assert that the generality of the Oxford and Cam- 
bridge students are of such a class? Why, Kneips and the 
Hirschgasse are heaven and innocence to them. Shall I advise 
them to quit their songs for the grossnesses sung by the wild 
portion of the students at Cambridge and Oxford? No! the 
songs of the German students, even when on no higher a theme 
than wine, and with the bold free-spokenness which is startling 
to our modes of thinking, are the effusions of the first spirits of 
their nation, and are sung to some of the finest melodies which 
ever emanated from that most musical of people. It is here 
that the tables must be turned, and that we must call on the 
English to imitate the Germans, and not the Germans the Eng- 
lish. If the EngUsh will drink, let them drink wine as cooling, 
and beer as thin and bitter, as the Germans; if they will fight 
duels, let them abandon bullets that fly through a man and let 
the soul out after them, and be content with a scratched nose or 



PREFACE. xi 

punctured padding. If they will sing over their wine, let them 
not sing the vile trash that is heard in the haunts of our students, 
but the spiritual effusions of such writers as Schiller, Goethe, 
Korner, Arndt, Claudius, Hauff, Follen, Uhland, etc. No, one 
cannot read of English students — of their guzzlings and their 
songs — without feeling a sense of commonplaceness, a some- 
thing low, gross, unimaginative and vulgar.* On the contrary, 
amid all the follies and mad frohcs and nonsense of German 
student-life — of which God knows there is plenty — he must be 
destitute of poetry himself who does not feel it there. If there 
be a man who can read through this volume and not feel its 
poetry, and not perceive the high and beautiful sentiment which 
pervades it; the profound love of nature, and the glorious love- 
of country, — let that man march off to Cambridge or Oxford ; 
let him give his suppers or his breakfasts ; let him hurry in his 
nightgown to morning prayers ; let him become a first-rower, 
or a senior-wrangler if he will ; but that man is no more 
fit to take his stand by the student revellers of Germany, than 
Caliban is by Hyperion. No, in the student-life, which is 
entered into as a brief season of youthful hilarity, which in 
this world can come but once ; a season in which knowledge 
is not only to be gathered, but life to be enjoyed — friendships 
for life to be knit up — love, perhaps for life, to be kindled — and 
the spirit of patriotism to be cherished to a degree which no 
after-chills and oppressions of ordinary life shall ever be able 
utterly to extinguish ; in this life there is a feeling and a senti- 
ment to which our student-life is a stranger. It is from the 

* The author here makes no charge against the great numbers of high-minded 
and gentlemanly young men who pass through, and confer distinction on, our 
universities ; bat, as before observed, alludes only to that class and those parties, 
which are not only depicted by the Westminster Review, but so fully described 
by the Editor of the Quarterly Review, in " Reginald Dalton." 



xii PREFACE. 

bosom of this life that some of the noblest poets, the profoundest 
philosophers, and the most devoted patriots which the world 
ever saw, have gone forth. It was from the heart of this life 
that Theodore Korner sprung, for the cause of his country and 
mankind, and sung and fought and died ; it was from this that 
Goethe and Schiller, HaufF and Tieck, and a thousand others, 
have issued to glorify valour, or consecrate patriotism, or beau- 
tify the regions of the human soul by their songs and their ima- 
ginative prose. It was from this that the whole body of ardent 
youth arose, and quitting their Kneips and their Chores, called 
all their country to reassert its liberty, to drive out its foes, and 
at the people's head, fought with the spirit of the ancient heroes, 
and chased from their soil for ever, the tyrant and overrunner 
of humbled Europe. 

And yet there are those who are continually forgetting these 
things; asserting that all the student songs, and student clan- 
ship, and student freedom, end in smoke and vapour, and 
without any permanent result, and that they depart at the 
termination of their academical career their several ways, 
and sink into obscurity and insignificance. What ! would they 
not have them become good citizens, sober judges, domestic 
men? But they who say that no high effects remain, know 
nothing of the youth of Germany. They cannot have seen 
how the new Rhine-song went through the whole country like 
an electric flash when France threatened to march to the banks 
of that noble river, and how every German student vowed 
if such a deed were perpetrated, they would go forth and 
fight to a man. They cannot know, as I do, that the loves 
and friendships formed by these youths are more permanent 
and indissoluble than any class of men with whom I have 
yet become acquainted ; nor that in private society, where, 
and in my own house, I have seen much of them, they are 



jja»*«- 



PREFACE. xiii 

amongst the most accomplished, gentlemanly, temperate, cor- 
rectly-mannered, cordial-hearted, and intellectual men that 
European society possesses. But all such persons I wiUingly 
turn over to the perusal of this volume, the work of a young 
but learned author, who has recently passed, by a splendid 
examination, out of this student-life itself without having ever 
fought a single duel, or very probably got half or even quarter 
seas over. If the perusal of this volume should have the good 
effect of lessening amongst the German youth the tendency 
to the beer or the sword duel, and of inspiring our English 
youth with a more intellectual and poetical taste in their 
pleasures, certainly we may say, in the style of all good old 
prefaces, " that it will not have been written in vain." 

Heidelberg, April 6th, 1841. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

General Plan, Officers, and Courts, of a German University— 

Charm of this life to those who have passed througli it — Explanation 
of the term Bursche, or Student — Right to found or dissolve Univer- 
sities, retained by the Sovereign Princes — Offices and mode of go- 
vernment — The Curatorium — Rector, Prorector — Senate, greater and 
less — Different orders of Professors and Teachers — mode of their 
remuneration — University Board of Finance — its Court of Justice — 
Academical freedom, and mode of matriculation — Inferior officers, 
and penalties for offences against the Academical laws — College terms 
— mode of Lecturing, and duties of Lecturers — necessary Examina- 
tions of the Students, and consequent Certificates — Sciences tauo-ht 
— Privileges and endowments to enable young men without property 
to enjoy all the advantages of the Universities — the great extent to 
which this is made available, and great advantages to the State de- 
rived from it — Opinion of Goethe on this head — Great Men that this 
has produced — no German, however exalted in rank, can hold a hio-h 
position in society, without making himself master of the knowledge 
thus opened to the people - - ~ - - 25 



CHAPTER n. 

General View of Student-life. — Student-life an admirable field for 
bringing a young man speedily to a knowledge of life, and to a sense of 
self-government and self-dependence — Prejudice, especially amongst 
foreigners, that Students must become exposed to many unpleasant- 
nesses — these groundless — every individual Student independent, and 



xvi CONTENTS. 

at liberty to associate just as little, or as much as he pleases with the 
rest — Equality the law of the German Students — their opinion that 
the English are the slaves of the Aristocracy — their surprise at the 
Aristocratic prejudices of the English — Academic freedom dear to 
every German Student — its value acknowledged by all the greatest 
men — Influence of the associate life of the Students on their minds 
and manners — including, as it does, the natives of so many Countries 
— Chores, or Unions — Landsmannschafts — the Burschenschaft — 
Wearing of Union Badges forbidden — Public Processions, and Cos- 
tumes of the Professors - - - - - 41 



CHAPTER III. 

The Chores, or Unions. — Their nature, constitution, and distinguish- 
ing colours — each Chore formed of the natives of a particular State 
— what is requisite for the formation of a New Chore — is acknow- 
ledged and recorded at the Allgemaine, or General Social Meeting 
of the Chores — Constitution of a Chore — its Officers, Code of Laws — 
its Beer-court, and Court of Honour — its Boon-companions, and various 
ranks of members — its Chore-Convent, or Board of Administration — 
the Proscription, or Bann, as exercised both against Members and 
oflfending Tradesmen, or even the University itself — Classes of Stu- 
dents termed Camels, etc. etc. - - - - - 49 



CHAPTER IV. 

The Burschenschaft. — The origin of this celebrated Society to be 
found in the patriotic desire to free Germany from the domination of 
Buonaparte — this feeling at first high and holy — quickened by the 
union of Learned and Literary men in the Poet-League of Gottengen, 
to advance the Language and Literature of the Country — the tri- 
umphs of Literature at their height under Schiller and Goethe, when 
the French Invasion took place — the indignant enthusiasm excited by 
this on the minds of the Students — the formation of Burschenschafts 
— these in difl^erent Universities united by one general bond — their 
effect in rousing Germany to the expulsion of the French — these 
feelings immortalized in the songs of Theodore Korner — the People's 
Battle at Leipsic — the expulsion of the French followed by a demand 
for the restoration of the Germanic Empire — Act of Confederation of 
the German States signed — Formation of the Holy Alliance of 
Sovereigns — Disappointment of the People — Agitations of the Bur- 
schenschaft — Beautiful ceremonies at the celebration of the Peace 



CONTENTS. Xvii 

Anniversary at Jena, etc. 1816 — further proceeding's of the Bur- 
schenschaft — the celebrated Festival in the Wartburg in 1817, at 
which the Writings of Kotzebue were burnt — Congress of Universi- 
ties at Jena in 1818, and Publication of the Constitution of the 
Burschenschaft — the influence of these events on the mind of George 
Sand, and its consequences - - - - - 58 



CHAPTER V. 

The Narrative of Sand. — His origin and education — his early enmity 
to the French — his conscientious but excitable disposition — the effect 
on his mind of the burning of Kotzebue's Writings — his personal 
appearance — Kotzebue in the pay of Russia, to give information of 
the popular movements and opinions in Germany — Seizure and publi- 
cation of one of his bulletins to that Government, and consequent 
popular excitement — Sand conceives the idea of putting Kotzebue to 
death, as a traitor to German freedom — his long mental struggles 
against this idea — the final surrender to it, and preparation for carry- 
ing it into effect — his paper called " Death-blow to August Von Kot- 
zebue" — his letter to his parents, and brother and sisters, on setting ' 
out on this project — his perpetration of the deed, his trial, and execu- 
tion at Mannheim — Consequence of this and similar attempts — The 
prohibition of the Burschenschaft, and persecution of its members — 
The Song " We Builded," etc., as sung at the breaking up of the 
Burschenschaft in June in 1819 - - - - - 79 



CHAPTER VI, 

Cerkmonial Introbuctions to University and Burschen Life. — 

-The Student youth of Germany, driven from the Burschenschaft, 
have fallen back on their Chore-life — Complaints of late years that 
youths coming to the University become involved in the dissipations 
of Chore-life, to the prevention of their studies and detriment of 
health and morals — these views combated by the Author — the exis- 
tence of a temporary excitement on entering University-life ac- 
counted for — the Author, as one who passed through this life, testifies 
to its advantages — Every University its own particular tone and cha- 
racter — Peep at the past Life of the Universities, as revealed in 
Zaccharise's " Renommist," and in a Drawing of 1730 — Singular and 
rude Customs formerly practised on the admission of Students to the 
Universities — Freshmen or Branen, then subjected also to many hu- 
miliations — the present condition of the Freshman, now termed a Fox 

2* 



Xviii CONTENTS. 

— Curious Anecdotes connected with the condition of a Fox — Different 
ranks which a Student passes through wlio joins a Chore, or Verbin- 
dung — in the Gymnasium, or school preparatory to the University, he 
is a Frog— then successively a Mule, a Camel, a Fox, a Fat-Fox, a 
Burnt-Fox, a Young Bursch, Old Bursch, and Mossy Head — Satirical 
explanation of Student terms, by Herr Schluck — Initiatory ceremo- 
nies at a Union of the Chores on creating the different degrees of 
Foxes — Singing of " The Landsfather" — The Fox-Ride, and its ac- 
companying song — Burning of the Burnt-Foxes, with the accom- 
panying song, etc. - - - - - - - 113 

CHAPTER VII, 

The Duel. — This is a practice of the Middle Ages, that has firmly 
maintained itself amongst the Students — the Author's opinion of it — 
its actual good or evil in the system — to be regarded principally as a 
trial of skill in fence — mode in which these Duels are contracted, 
settled, conducted, and fought out — At Heidelberg these take place 
in a well-known house in the Hirschgasse — Duel Costume, and dif- 
ferent species of Duel — Anecdote of a little Jew who fought one — the 
Duel prohibited by the laws — the Academical enactments against it 
— Attempts of the Beadles to seize the Combatants — their watchers 
— the Red Fisherman, their great champion — Students' dogs some- 
times join in the contest — Penalties, and University Prison - - 134 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Characters connecting themselves with Student Life. — The 
Hofrath Diehl — his History — the Flower-Boy, and Frau Gotlieben 
the Fruitwoman - - . . . - . 154 



CHAPTER IX. 

Private Life of the Student. — Visit of Mr. Traveller, the English- 
man, to the room of the Student Freisleben — his surprise at what he 
saw — his friendly welcome — Description of the Room and its various 
Decorations — Student word for comfortable — the Boot -Fox — Origin 
of the word School Foxery, or pedantry — Wages of a Boot-Fox — 
Expense of Living at the University — Pendulums and Knoten — 
origin of the latter term — the House Philistine and his duties — the 
Philose, the Besom, the House-Bursch, and Room-Bursch — What it 
means to " Tail a Lecture" — Dissertation on Dogs — A visit to the 



CONTENTS. Xix 

annual Dog-Muster — Students' Dogs — their characteristics — one at 
a duel swallows up a Student's nose — the little Dog Tambour] i — the 
Student's love for his Pipe — Pipes of various kinds, and in all their 
parts, described — Origin of the word Fidibus— the philosophy of 
Smoking -- - - - - . . 162 



CHAPTER X. 

Rural and Summer Amusements of the Student. — Beauties of the 
neighbourhood of Heidelberg — The Wolfsbrunnen — the surrounding 
Woods and Mountains of the Odenwald and Black Forest — Historical 
associations — the Student sometimes takes longer excursions than 
into these scenes — Excursions in a one-engine — Water excursions — 
Field sports — The Students' Shooting ground — Kirschweihs, or 
Wakes, described — the Students there — Scenes which arise with the 
Handwerksburschen --._.. iqq 

CHAPTER XL 

Winter Amusements of the Student. — He joins gladly Social Parties 
at the houses of the Inhabitants and of the English — iinds much 
amusement at the Reading-rooms, Billiard-table, and Balls and Con- 
certs at the Museum — Serenades — Song, " The Departure" — Skating 
— pushing Ladies on the Ice in Sledges — gaiety of these scenes — sledg- 
ing parties by Torch-light — Whims of the Students on such occasions 
— Instances of their schemes to satirize the attempts of the Senate to 
check their expense in such things — in the evening joins his Kneip - 198 

CHAPTER XII. 

The Student's Evening Party, with its Conversations, Discus- 
sions, Songs, and Customs. — The Student Hoffman entertains his 
Friends — Description of his Rooms — his Friends Preisleben, Von 
Kronen, Eckhard, Ehderlin, Pittschaft, Mr. Traveller — their opinion 
of Englishmen and English Ladies — Melancholy story of Krusenstern 
and Avensleben — The Radonen Cake — Sketch of the history of Uni- 
versities, given by Von Kronen — Discussion on Phrenology — English 
and German Literature compared — German Romance ludicrously 
described by Lichtenberg — the Students sing Schiller's song of" The 
Four Elements," also " There Twinkle Three Stars" from Korner — 
they sing a Roundelay — Anecdotes of Stambooks— Drink to their 
Ladies — Drink and sing as a Roundelay the humorous song of " The 
Krahwinkle Landsturm" — sing a Lumpitus of the first verse of various 



XX CONTENTS. 

celebrated songs in rotation — sing " The Binschgauer" — Merriments 
before parting — The songs of " Ye Brothers, when no more I'm drink- 
ing," " The Pope," " Brothers, in this Place of Festive Meeting," 
" So crown with leaves the love-o'erbrimming Beakers" - - 209 



CHAPTER XIII. 

General System of German Education. — Glance at the progress of 
popular Education, from the ancient Nations and Times down to the 
present — Popular Folks'-schools of the Middle Ages — Gerhardus 
Magnus — his Institution at Deventer — his ideas followed out by 
Montaigne, Bacon, etc. — the Burger class erect Schools — the Refor- 
mation — School of Conrad Celtes, for the restoration of Classical 
antiquity— Services of Erasmus, Reuchlin, Dalberg, Agricola, Pirk- 
heimer, etc. — the origin of the plans of Pestalozzi to be found in the 
writings of Ratich and Comenius — Services of Fenelon, Spencer, and 
Franke — Improvements by Ziedler, Hein, and Sulzer — Influence of 
Locke, Rousseau, Crousatz, in developing the modern School-systems 
— Description of the German School-system, and what is taught in 
each class of Schools, viz. the Elementary, or Proper Folks'- 
ScHOOLs ; the Real Schools, called also Middle Schools, Higher 
Burger Schools, etc. ; the Gymnasia ; the Universities - - 253 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Song, an indispensable requisite to the Student, as to all Ger- 
mans. — Song and Poetry a necessity to the German — the Germans 
rich in Popular Songs — Universal singing of the Common People — 
A popular Song at any crisis passes like an electric flash through the 
whole People — " Prince Eugene," a specimen of a class of Songs 
very common amongst the People — All classes, in town or country, 
have their peculiar Songs — the Student is affluent in Songs — the 
Commers-Book a collection of them — Sing in their Kneips — their 
Songs often heard on summer evenings in the open air with fine 
effect — one of the finest " From High Olympus," etc. — the Rounde- 
lay — the Student has his Songs of Love, Wine, Fatherland, and 
Friendship — Student-life regarded as a joyous season that comes but 
once, therefore they sing and rejoice in it — Accompany their De- 
ceased Brethren to the tomb also with Sono- — " Gaudeamus igitur" - 272 



CONTENTS. xxi 



CHAPTER XV. 

Drinking Customs of Student-life, ancient and modern. — The 

Author's opinions on festive drinking; — Song of Old Noah — Master 
Schluck's persiflag-e on the Burschen-Comment, or Student Code of 
Drinking Laws — Notice of some of the chief of the different classes 
of Student Songs — " The Maiden Song" as formerly sung — account 
of it in Zacchariae's Renommist — Drinking Customs of a past age in 
the Universities — anecdotes of these — Phrases collected by Lichten- 
berg descriptive of a Drunkard — the General Beer-Code of Heidel- 
berg - - - - - - - - - 285 



_ CHAPTER XVI. 

The Commers. — The Commerses, general and special — their social 
Festive Meetings, held on various occasions — Description of the 
General Commers — certain Songs sung, as "Heidelberg live thou," 
etc. — the Singing of " The Consecration Song, or Landsfather," and 
singular ceremonies attending it — the Ceremony of the Smollis — 
Smollering constitutes a Brotherhood to last for life — Drinking Laws 
of the Commers — Herr Schluck's Comments on a Commers — the Ex- 

- cesses of the Ancient Commerses abandoned - - - 298 



CHAPTER XVn. 

The Special Commers. — Description of a train of Students going out 
to a Special Commers in the country — their arrival there — descrip- 
tion of the Room and mode of holding the Commers — Ceremony, and 
Song of " The Prince of Fooling" — Frolics and Gambols of the Stu- 
dents the next day in the village — An old ballad describing these in 
1650 — the Commers over, they return often by water, with music 
and fireworks — close it with drinking Crambambuli — the Song of 
Crambambuli — The Lumpin Bell - - - - -310 



CHAPTER XVIIL 

New Year's Eve. — Spent by the Friends at the rooms of Freisleben — 
Conversation sallies — Glee-wine made, and the English song, "Down 
with the Sorrows," etc., by Mrs. Howitt, sung by Hoffmann to the 
guitar—" The Song of Wine"—" The Table-Song," by Goethe - 319 



Xxii CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

New Year's Eve, continued. — Sketch of the History of Heidelberg 
University — a Salamander rubbed to the honour of the Professors - 328 



CHAPTER XX. 

New Year's Eve, continued. — University Stories — Singular Story of 
the feats of activity, strength, and eccentric humour of Von Plauen — 
his Banishment from the University — his Imprisonment and Escape 
— Story of the Student Schwartzkopf, who became the celebrated 
robber, " The Black Peter ;" with his deeds, capture, and strange 
final escape — Story of the Student Stark — Fire-arms announce the 
entrance of the New Year, and the friends rush forth to witness the 
Procession of the Students to give a " Vivat" to their chief Profes- 
sors — this described — Breaking up of the ice on the river — the ex- 
ploit of the Red Fisherman ----.. 335 



CHAPTER XXI. 

The Marching-Forth. — Modes in which the Student generally quits 
the University — The Marching-Forth when the Bann is laid by the 
Students on the University itself, and march forth in a body — various 
instances of this — the one which arose out of the building of the 
Museum in Heidelberg in 1827 — the cry of " Bursch, come forth !" 
raised, and all the Students, in procession, quitted the city — the pro- 
gress of negotiation and return of the Students — Marching-Forth 
from Heidelberg on account of dispute with the Military — Marching- 
Forth from Gottingen in 1818 — progress and event of it — Anecdote 
of a Student and an Actor at Darmstadt — Noble instance of the cry 
of "Bursch, come forth!" being raised for the defence of the Jews — 
used in case of tires— in defence of the Prussian Students — Debts of 
the Students — their vengeance on an offending Tailor — the Mani- 
chseans or creditors — Mr. Traveller quits Heidelberg — Scene at his 
Rooms — Accompanied by his Friends to Weinheim — Meeting with 
a pedestrian party of Students from Wertzburg — As Mr. Traveller 
departs they sing, " A Mossy Bursch now forth I wend" - - 374 



CHAPTER XXII. 

The Student's Funeral, etc. — Hazards supposed to attend Student- 
life considered — Termination of the Student career by death — No 



CONTENTS. xxiii 

class of persons so poetically testify their respect and affection for 
their deceased friends as the Students — Description of the whole 
Pageant and Procession of a Student's Funeral — with the final burn- 
ing of the torches before the University, and singing of the "Gaudea- 
mus igitur" — Funeral honours paid to a Professor - - - 393 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

The Comitat, or accompaniment of a Student in procession on his 
quitting the University — Hard study of the Student as the day of 
Examination approaches — Degrees obtained — Description of the Co- 
mitat procession of his Friends, as formerly practised and as at pre- 
sent — they sing the song of " The Mossy Bursch" at parting — Ballad 
of'TheOldBursch" 402 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

Summary of the actual merits and demerits of German Student-life — ■ 
Arguments of Professor Ringseis against Duelling - - - 407 



CHAPTER XXV. 
A Review of the Political Aspect of Student-life ... 428 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

A partiiig^glance at other Universities, German and Foreign - - 434 



The General Beer-Comment of Heidelberg 



441 



LIST OF GERMAN SONGS. 



TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH. 



1. The Sword Song- ..-.-- 61 

2. The German Fatherland .... - 65 

3. The Union Song ...... 72 

4. Are German Hearts _ . . . . 75 

5. We Buiklcd Ourselves -.---- Ill 

6. The Fox-Ride - 129 

7. Free is the Bursch ....-- 132 

8. The VVirthin's Daughter ... - - 190 

9. God greet Thee, Brother Straubinger . . - - 196 

10. True Love - - 201 

11. The Departure ---.--- 202 

12. The Gallant Ship is going - - - - - 206 

13. The Four Elements - - - - - - 240 

14. There Twinkle Three Stars - - - - 241 

15. Roundelay ....... 241 

16. The Krahwinkler Landsturm - - - - 243 

17. The Binschgauer's Pilgrimage - - - - - 246 

18. Drinking Song ...... 248 

19. The Pope ...-.-. 249 

20. Drinking Song ...... 250 

21. Rhine-Wine ....... 251 

22. Prince Eugene ...... 275 

^^^-Commers Song -.--.-- 279 

24. An t,.a^unded Jollity ..... 281 

25. Gaudeamus igiv>r ...... 283 



26. Old Noah 



287 



27. Old-fashioned Bursch -,__.. 290 

28. The Travel Song ------ 299 

29. The Landsfather - - . . . - 301 

30. Prince of Fools ...... gxa 

31. Ways of the Students - - - . - - 314 

32. Crambambuli ...... 316 

33. Song of Wine ....... 324 

34. The Departing Bursch . . . . - 391 

35. The Old Bursch » - - . - - 405 



THE 



STUDENT LIFE OF GERMANY. 



CHAPTER I. 



GENERAL PLAN, OPriCERS AND COURTS, OP A GERMAN UNIVERSITY. 

Jerusalem beautifully observes, that the barbarism which often springs up be- 
hind the loveliest and most richly-coloured flower of knowledge, may be a kind of 
strengthening mud-bath, to prevent the over- delicacy which threatens the flower ; 
and I fancy that one who reflects how far knowledge usually climbs in a student, 
will allow the so-called Burschen life to the Sons of the Muses, as a kind of bar- 
barous Middle-age, which may so far fortify them as to prevent this delicacy of 
refinement exceeding its due bounds. — Jean Paul Richter''s Quintus Fichslein. 

Student Life ! Burschen Life ! What a magic sound have 
these words for him who has learnt for himself their real mean- 
ing! What a swarm of recollections come over him who has 
once visited that land, however long it may be since he returned 
homeward to a safer haven ! Youth flies on wings of impa- 
tience towards this happy time ; age, though indeed it may 
smile over the recollection of many a folly, recalls its memory 
with delight. 

We hear two old men, who in later Ufe recognise each other 
in civil office, and loaded with honourable duties. They speak 
of those beautiful dreams of youth with enthusiasm, like two old 

3 



26 GERMAN UNIVERSITIES. 

veterans rejoicing themselves in the recollections of the cam- 
paigns in which they have served, and the battles which they 
have fought together. "To the old times!" cry they, touching 
their glasses together, filled with noble Rhein wine, and with 
their joy sorrowfully mingles itself the memory of the many 
companions of those times, who have already quitted this life ; 
for it is a fine characteristic of the heart of man, that while 
enjoying the highest happiness of the present, or when joyfully 
calling to remembrance that once enjoyed, in such moments it 
feels most painfully the absence of distant friends. 

The stranger who should hear the conversation of these old 
gentlemen ; as he saw how they became young again in spirit, 
and how their forms, bent with^years, they raised again erect as 
they conversed, would gladly linger near them, and would cer- 
tainly say, " Those must indeed have been delightful times !" 

Yes, they were — and they are, for those who know how to 
enjoy them. Stranger, thou who hast never known this beauti- 
ful life ; and thou who wouldst willingly experience more of it, 
— to you hope we to be able to reveal many an attractive 
feature, and you shall behold many a scene, as we venture to 
predict, snatched fresh and Uving from the heart of this existence. 
Follow us into the City of the Muses — to the strife-place of this 
passion-driven life ; there will we teach thee more nearly to 
observe the peculiar constitution of this student state, and the 
habits of its citizens, which thou hast perhaps observed many a 
time with amazement. Many a foreigner has even probably 
been for a short period a citizen of this state, without having 
penetrated deeply into its constitution and all its peculiarities. 
To him also will these pages afford information and entertain- 
ment, 

Plunge boldly into actual human life, — 
Every man lives it; few men know it well; 
And vvhere you seize it, there you make it tell. 

Prologue to Goethe's Faust. 

We have here in the very outset used the expressions 
" student" and " bursche," and shall find ourselves necessitated 



OFFICERS AND COURTS. 27 

still oftener to use them ; we will, therefore, at once give a few 
sentences in explanation of their meaning. By student, we 
understand one who has by matriculation acquired the rights of 
academical citizenship ; but, by bursche, we understand one 
who has already spent a certain time at the university — and 
who, to a certain degree, has taken part in the social practices 
of the students. How and when he acquires a real claim to 
this title, we shall hereafter have occasion to show. We will 
here only make one observation regarding the origin of this 
term. 

In order to render a university education available to men of 
little or no property, in the twelfth century colleges were 
founded, where poor youths received free lodging, maintenance, 
and money, and lived under the strict superintendence of one 
or more teachers. This became extensively the case in the 
thirteenth century, and still more general in the fourteenth. 
Private persons of wealth were mostly the benefactors, when 
such institutions were founded and endowed. In Germany such 
colleges were called bursen, whence comes the term bursche. 
This name, given at that time to such as dwelt together in such 
a burse, was, at a later period, restricted to those only who had 
for a longer time taken a more immediate part in the associate 
life of the students. The signification of the terms — student 
life, burschen life — thence derived, is plain enough of percep- 
tion. Before, however, we conduct the reader into this bur- 
schen life, in order to give him a clearer understanding of it, we 
will say a few words on the constitution of universities ; on the 
surveillance which the state exercises over them, and on the 
relation of teachers and university officers to the students. 

The right to found universities — to dissolve them again — to 
unite them with others, and so on — belongs at the present time 
only to the respective sovereign princes, who have held these 
prerogatives from the dissolution of the German empire. Prior 
to this, they centred in the Emperor, and before the Reforma- 
tion, in the Pope. The universities stand under the particular 
protection of the state, which superintends and conducts them 
by jurisdiction thereunto especially organized. The interests 



28 GERMAN UNIVERSITIES. 

of the universities are protected by a representative in the 
Landtag, the second chamber of the state. Should a university 
have causes of complaint against the prince, it must appeal 
to the Bundestag, that is, the court established between the 
different German states, to decide all questions between those 
states, or between the prince and people of any one of them. 

At the head of a German university stands the rector, or 
more commonly, the prorector, since the rectorate is generally 
retained by the sovereign princes in their own hands, as is the 
case in Baden. With the rector or prorector is associated the 
Academical Senate, as a permanent court of administration. 
:' The prorector is annually chosen at Easter, by, the Great 
Senate, out of the body of professors. He is then proposed to 
the curator, formerly termed throughout Germany, the chan- 
cellor, and still so styled in Wirtemberg. On the motion of 
this officer, he is confirmed by the prince. His duty is to pro- 
mote, as far as in him lies, the prosperity and object of the 
High School generally, and especially the moral and literary 
education of the students ; the enforcement of the academical 
laws and statutes ; and to watch over the official proceedings 
of the curatorship, and the resolutions of the Senate, He thus 
presides over the Great, and Select or Lesser Senate, where he 
also exercises the right of proposition ; opens all propositions or 
memorials ; collects the votes ; and, according to the majority, 
decides. He is entitled to be present at the assembly of the 
Ephorats. At the expiration of his prorectorate, he continues 
in the senate a year, where, in the absence of the prorector, he 
occupies his place. 

The Senate is divided into the Select and Great Senate, 
The first consists of the prorector, the ex-prorector, and four 
ordinary professors, each section furnishing one. At the end 
of every half-year three members go out. Their successors 
are appointed from the curatorium — the office of the curator. 
The period of office is for a year. The Select Senate corre- 
sponds with the curatorium, and it is the business of the 
prorector to lay before this body all current communications 
from the curatorium: in ordinary cases, at its ordinary sittings; 



OFFICERS AND COURTS, 29 

or in emergencies, at extraordinary ones. The Select Senate 
lays before the Great Senate all such concerns as have been 
brought under its own consideration, or such as at least two- 
thirds of its members shall deem of sufficient importance to 
require reference to this larger body. The Select Senate 
assembles regularly every fortnight. Extraordinary meetings 
are called by the prorector. In cases of an equality of votes, 
the prorector gives the casting voice. 

The Great Senate consists of all the ordinary professors. To 
this senate belongs the election of prorector, and other officers 
of the university, so far as the university right extends, and the 
management of the affiiirs consigned to their care by the Select 
Senate. The Great Senate has, therefore, no fixed days of 
assembly. The four faculties of theology, law, medicine, an3^ 
philosophy, which last includes in itself all that is not compre- 
hended under the other three, as mathematics, political and 
states' economy, history, language, etc. etc., constitute the main 
learned and scientific fabric of the university. 

The teachers are divided into ordinary professors ; such 
teachers as occupy the established professorships, with the 
emoluments and duties thereunto belonging; and the extraor- 
dinary professors, such teachers as possess only such salary 
as the prince bestows. These do not always hold an actual 
professorship — and in this respect, resemble a third class, the 
so-called Privat Docenten ; that is to say, gentlemen who de- 
vote themselve to an academical career, who have taken the 
degree of doctor, and through a public disputation have ac- 
quired the right to deliver lectures on subjects connected with 
their particular department of science. The last receive no 
salary, but depend upon the remuneration derived from their-- 
classes. 

This institution of private teachers forms a nursery, out of 
which the High School can advantageously recruit itself with 
able professors ; and we shall have occasion presently to show 
the great benefit derived from this regulation, especially when 
compared with the arrangements of the French universities. 

All the ordinary professors are members of the faculty by 

3* 



30 GERMAN UNIVERSITIES. 

virtue of their office. Their rank in the faculty determines 
itself by the number of years during which they have occupied 
regular professorships, whether in that in w^iich they reside, or 
in some other university of Germany. The oldest member of 
each faculty becomes, according to established rule, its head, 
with the title of Dean. To him it belongs to bring forward all 
affairs of the faculty; to superintend the examination of the 
students, as well as to issue the diplomas conferred on them. 

The same honorarium which the docenten or tutors receive, 
receive also all the teachers of a university, from those students 
w^ho attend their classes. There are regular receivers, qu^s- 
tors, appointed for the reception of the honorarium, or charge 
for the attendance of lectures, to whom especially belongs the 
reception of all money belonging to the administration of the 
university, and attention to every thing connected with the 
financial department. 

The universities possess funds of their own, which are de- 
rived from ancient grants from the princes, and from private 
legacies. To this fund the government adds an annual deter- 
minate contribution ; and from this united income are defrayed 
the total expenses of the High School ; as the salaries of teach- 
ers and officers, and the management of its subordinate institu- 
tions. Besides this financial administration of the university, it 
has also a building and economy commission. The building- 
commission has the superintendence of the new building and 
necessary repairs in the university, and under its direction is 
placed the building inspector with a yearly salary. In the 
economy department of the university, the commission, in all 
that falls under its management, has to maintain a correspon- 
dence with, and receive the approval of the curatorial office. 
It assembles once a month under a director, who is selected 
from the members in routine. The cashier of the university 
has a seat in the commissions, and he is at the same time 
secretary, and draws up and signs the decrees of the senate. 

As the university has its own Board of Finance, so has it also 
its Court of Justice. The peculiar life of the universities — their 
peculiar relation to the state — the members of such societies — 



OFFICERS AND COURTS. 31 

flowing together, as they did and do, from such different coun- 
tries, to combine themselves, so to say, into an imperium in 
imperio ; into a small state, in fact, which must enjoy a certain, 
and, indeed, ample degree of freedom, and yet must be made 
subordinate to the great state, — all this made the princes in the 
times immediately succeeding the founding of the universities, 
feel it necessary to grant to them their own courts of justice. 
So received these institutions peculiar privileges. Individual 
laws were given, till their number became so great that it was 
requisite to collect them into a code. These laws, as they at 
present exist, have been revised by the government, in conjunc- 
tion with the senates of the universities, and confirmed. They 
bear especially upon the following points. First, upon the 
acquisition and forfeiture of the rights of academical citizenship..^ 
Candidates for matriculation must, upon an appointed day, and ' 
at an appointed hour, appear before the board of matriculation, 
and lay before it their certificates of learning and morals. If 
these are found satisfactory, the board delivers to the candidate 
the printed academical regulations. Hereupon must he sign 
what is called the reverse ; that is, an attached form of declara- 
tion, binding himself to take no part in any prohibited verbindung, 
or union, or in any designs of a demagogue burschenschaft, but 
to conform himself to the academical laws. The new candidate 
thereupon gives to the prorector what is called the hand-geliibde, 
or literally, hand-oath ; that is, he gives him his hand, pronounces 
what is above stated, and then receives the matriculation cer- 
tificate, or diploma, which confers upon him the enjoyment of 
all the rights of academical burgership. Through this he acquires 
a claim on the academical court of justice, on the protection of 
the academical laws, as well as the right to enjoy the benefit of 
the library and the learned institutions. 

No one who has not matriculated can attend the public lec- 
tures, except the tutors, companions or attendants, appointed by 
parents or guardians to students — these, of course, also paying 
the regular fees — and such persons not studying in the universi- 
ties as are so far advanced in life as to put matriculation out of 
the question. This right of academical citizenship continues five 



32 GERMAN UNIVERSITIES. 

years, provided it be not voluntarily relinquished or penally for- 
feited. The laws extend themselves to the relations between 
the students and the heads, professors, and subordinate officers 
of the university, as well as towards other officers of the state 
or city. For instance, the penalties are stated, for offences 
asainst these various officers, as also the duties of the students 
in regard to their studies. A long series of laws defines the 
penalties for the peculiar offences of students, as for games of 
hazard, real and verbal injuries to one another, especially for 
the duel, under its various forms; for breaking the peace, 
drunkenness, tumults and uproars, interdicted assembling of 
themselves together, secret combinations of students, etc. It is 
further declared, that public processions are only permitted 
under certain conditions, and that the wearing of colours is for- 
bidden. Further declarations regard the debts of the students ; 
and lastly, the regulations under which the advantages of the 
university library are to be enjoyed are made known. 

The oversight and penal jurisdiction over the students are 
exercised by the academical senate, the prorector, and the amt- 
mann, or magistrate of the university. The ephorat is a peculiar 
board, consisting of select professors, which only in the sphere 
of fatherly and friendly admonition exercises its superintendence 
chiefly over the moral conduct of the students when occasion 
requires ; exhorting them to diligence and good behaviour, and 
putting itself, if necessary, in correspondence with their parents. 
The magistrate exercises the jurisdiction in the first instance. In 
criminal cases, he draws the process, and sends it, not to the 
court of justice of the university, but to the ordinary tribunal of 
the state; in affairs of discipline he conducts the inquiry, and 
pronounces all academical penalties, with the exception of the 
consilium abeundi. The proceeding in the inquiry is summary, 
and, in cases where the ordinary oath is administered to people 
in general, is the elirenivort, or word of honour of the student 
demanded. To the condemned it is neither allowed to look 
into the proceedings against him, nor is the name of his accuser 
revealed. He must even submit himself to the judgment of the 
senate, without the power to insist that the ground of its judg- 



OFFICERS AND COURTS. SS 

ment shall be made known. The appeal from the sentence of 
the amtmann, lies to the senate, which also pronounces the 
consilium aheundi and the relegation, on the motion of the amt- 
mann. The appeal from the sentence of the senate lies to the 
minister of the interior. 

For the administration of the academical laws and acts of 
justice, especial police officers, and beadles, upper and inferior, 
are maintained. The chief beadle in pressing cases, has the 
right to cite before him, and to arrest without warrant, but must 
immediately make announcement thereof to the amtmann. 

The chief beadle, who lives near the college, has at the same 
time, the care of the prison, which is in the upper part of his 
house. \Two beadles do duty in the university library. In the 
scale of academical punishments, first stands reproof, then pecu- 
niary fine, then incarceration. The signing of the consilium 
aheundi, includes a solemn promise not to suffer himself to be- 
come guilty in future of any offence, even of smaller moment. 
He who, notwithstanding, breaks this promise, and becomes 
guilty of an offence which would draw upon another at least 
eight days' imprisonment, can meet with no lighter punishment 
than the consilium aheundi. This consilium aheundi consists in 
expulsion out of the district of the court of justice within which 
the university is situated. This punishment lasts a year ; after 
the expiration of which the banished student can renew his 
matriculation. The relegation is the punishment next in severity. 
It has two degrees. First, the simple relegation. This consists 
in expulsion out of the aforesaid districts, for a period of from 
two to three years ; after which the offender may indeed return, 
but can no more be received as an academical burger. Secondly, 
the sharper relegation, which adds to the simple relegation an 
announcement of the fact to the magistracy of the place of 
abode of the offender ; and according to the discretion of the 
court, a confinement in an ordinary prison, previous to the 
banishment is added; and also the sharper relegation can be 
extended to more than four years, the ordinary term, yes, even 
to perpetual expulsion. Loss of honour is one of a class of 
severe penalties which can only be pronounced by a civil court 



34 GERMAN UNIVERSITIES. 

of justice. Previous to any consilium abeundi and relegation, 
the university anatmann must send intelligence to all the German 
universities, and to the city magistrates, of the cause of the pro- 
secution, together with the signature of the culprit, and also 
must affix a copy of the sentence on the black board, that is, 
a black tablet, or board, in the university, to v^^hich all the an- 
nouncements to its members are attached ; and at the same time 
must advertise the parents, or those standing in their relation, of 
the same. Causes of complaint, which a student considers him- 
self to have against an academical officer, must be laid before 
the academical amtmann, if such officer belong to the inferior 
class of the servants of the High School. When it affects a 
head or teacher, then before the academical senate ; if it affects 
the prorector, or academical senate, then it must be carried to 
the curator of the university, who must receive it, and lay it 
before the minister of the interior. 



Through these brief sketches we hope to have given to the 
reader a clear notion of the constitution of a German university, 
in reference to its financial and judicial administration. We 
have so far had Heidelberg in our eye, and may be allowed to 
do this, since however different the universities of Germany 
may otherwise be, in spirit and manners, in these respects they 
resemble each other. Upon the conformity of their present 
constitution to their purpose, we may leave the reader to make 
his own reflections. This is a subject upon which i^ecently so 
much discussion has taken place, and so many proposals have 
been made ; not indeed so jocose as that of Lichtenberg, where 
he says, " every university should have an ambassador at the 
other universities for the purpose of keeping up the friendships 
as well as the enmities ;" we shall moot this point as opportu- 
nity occurs, we will at present make only a few observations on 
the constitution of the universities, as regards the course of 
studies. 

The annual courses of instruction are divided into summer 



OFFICERS AND COURTS. 35 

and winter half-years; betwixt come Easter and Michaelmas 
as vacations. The lectures, which in these annual courses are 
delivered, comprehend in themselves the whole doctrines which 
belong to the circle of the four faculties. The professors are 
bound by the state, by which they are paid, to deliver the neces- 
sary lectures, but they are allowed a certain freedom in the 
distribution of these lectures amongst the members of the faculty. 
Every teacher is bound during three times each week, to deliver 
a public lecture, gratis, on which occasion he either makes an 
examination of the students on the subject of his regular course, 
or lectures on an interesting but generally minor topic of his 
branch of science or literature, which possibly the students 
would hesitate to attend were they obliged to pay for it, and 
which yet may be important to the creditable discharge of their 
future profession. Every lecturer is in duty bound to devote 
twelve hours per week to his regular course, that is, to the lec- 
tures for which he receives a proportionate honorarium from the 
students ; these twelve hours being divided into two or three 
lectui'es, according as the extent of their matter may require. 
Besides this, it is the duty of each lecturer, so far as his other 
obligations permit, to be ready to deliver any lecture which lies 
within the sphere of his department of teaching, when, out of the 
ordinary course, such is desired of him by a number of the stu- 
dents, so soon as those who seek it assure him of a proportionate 
remuneration for his trouble. To these Privatissimi, as they are 
called, or especially private lectures, being once agreed upon, 
no other auditors can be admitted. Lectures are delivered every 
day, Sundays and holidays excepted ; each delivery continuing 
only one hour, so that one may not prevent another. The ma- 
jority of the lectures are delivered in German, partly extempore 
and partly from the written notes ; the latter practice, however, 
becoming daily more rare. A certain time before the new 
course begins, a list is sent round, on which each lecturer puts 
down the lectures he intends to give. The hours of delivery are 
next added, in order to avoid collision. After its receiving the 
approval of the curator, it is published under the direction of a 
commissioner appointed by him. The list is in German. The 



36 GERMAN UNIVERSITIES. 

commencement of each course, as well as other particulars con- 
nected with it, is made known on the black board. It is at the 
option of each student which course or courses of lectures he 
will attend during the current half-year, and he gives notice 
accordingly to the professor who has announced that course. 
Yet is the student in the German states obliged, within the 
period of his whole university study, to attend a certain number 
of lectures, if he wishes to be admitted to a state's examination. 
Those lectures which bear upon the peculiar profession at 
which he aims, are prescribed to him by the state to which he 
belongs. He must obtain from the respective lecturers, testimo- 
nies that he has diligently studied every lecture of that kind. A 
copy of these testimonies is contained in the so-called departure- 
certificate, without which no one can be admitted to the state's 
examination ; and this certificate is sent directly by the prorector 
to the board of examination. This departure-certificate is, in 
fact, on the student's quitting the High School, drawn up, and 
signed by the prorector and amtmann of the university, and 
contains the date of matriculation, the continuance of his abode 
at the college — a certain term of abode being prescribed by the 
government for the student of each particular profession, — the 
attendance of lectures, a statement of his behaviour, what punish- 
ments he has become amenable to. The certificate expressly 
announces whether the student has taken part in any interdicted 
combination or not ; whether he even were suspected of such 
participation, and on what grounds. 

The university buildings themselves contain the lecture-rooms; 
and the greater part of those lectures which are likely to draw 
the largest audiences are there delivered. The warming of the 
rooms, and their lighting up for the evening lectures, are the 
care of the nearest dwelling chief-beadle. These buildings con- 
tain also a larger hall, in which the public celebrations of uni- 
versity aflfairs and events are held. In this hall, for example, 
are annually delivered, publicly and solemnly, the gold medals 
to those who have best answered the prize-questions propounded 
by each faculty. The professors also frequently lecture in their 
own houses. The medical and natural history lectures are 



OFFICERS AND COURTS. 37 

mostly in these buildings, where those collections of specimens 
and subjects belonging to the university, which are necessary 
to demonstration, are deposited. Amongst these are the appa- 
ratus for the physical sciences, the chemical laboratory, the 
zoological and mineralogical cabinets, the cabinet of models, 
the buildings in the botanical gardens, and school of anatomy. 
The lectures also on pathology, surgery, and obstetrics, are 
delivered in the respective hospitals of these departments. Be- 
sides the professors in the university, also other teachers of 
physical exercises, as the riding-master, fencing-master, dancing 
and swimming masters, receive small salaries, that students 
may not lose the opportunity of perfecting themselves in these 
arts. 

In order to make support at the university easy to those 
without property, many regulations are established. To those 
who can bring certificates of inabiUty to pay, the lecture-fees 
are remitted. Besides this, in the different universities exist 
endowments, derived in part from an ancient period, for such 
as cannot support the cost of a university life. Many univer- 
sities are rich in such endowments, or stipends. It is a popular 
joke, that any student who arrives at Greifswald, well known 
as the smallest Prussian university, is asked at the gate whether 
he will accept a stipend ; and if he declines, they hesitate to 
admit him ; since, unless students enow will come and take 
them, the university does not know what to do with its endow- 
ments. The candidates to obtain stipends must submit to an 
examination, and then receive half-yearly a fixed sum, which 
however, in case of ill conduct, can at the end of any half-year 
be withdrawn. These endowments are in the management of 
several professors of the academy. The various seminaries 
possess the like; in particular, the preacher seminary, where 
the young theologians are prepared for their future calling. 
They live in a large building at free cost, and under stricter 
oversight than the rest of the students. Every student who is 
in circumstances to pay the college fees, must make half-yearly, 
a small contribution to the sick union, out of which sum such 

4 



38 GERMAN UNIVERSITIES. 

of the poor students as become ill are furnished with all neces- 
sary attendance in particular apartments in the hospital. For 
this union a commission is named, consisting of several of the 
professors, and some students. 

These slight notices may be sufficient to give us a concep- 
tion of the internal arrangements of one of the German uni- 
versities, which proudly may the German say, though they 
may indeed have their defects, yet stand far above all foreign 
ones. What country can show an institution so well organized 
and ordered as our High Schools ? Truly does it excite ad- 
miration and delight to see so small a state, even as Baden, 
whose peculiar aim is the diffusion of knowledge. On the one 
hand, teachers paid by the state, that they may, freed from all 
the pressure of affairs, be able to dedicate their lives entirely 
to the office of teaching ; and on the other, scholars flocking 
from every country, to avail themselves of their instructions. 

How many great men have already gone forth out of this 
school ! What beneficent influence such an association exerts 
on the whole life with which it is surrounded, we see strikingly 
when we turn our eyes elsewhere, when we compare the fresh 
and living spirit which a university inspires, with the unintel- 
lectual existence of a mere mercantile city. Most true are the 
words of Goethe : — " That academical life, even if we cannot 
ourselves boast of participation of its peculiar diligence, yet in 
every species of accomplishment yields incalculable advantages, 
since we are perpetually surrounded by men who either possess 
knowledge, or seek it, so that, from such an atmosphere, even 
while unconscious of it, we draw actual nourishment." — Goethe's 
Lehen Wahrheit unci Dicktung. 

And this fountain of all high knowledge, we may assert it 
with joy, flows not only for the wealthy and the lords of broad 
lands. No ! it stands open to the poorest amongst the people, 
that it may call forth talent and spiritual endowments to their 
highest accomplishment ! Through this becomes it possible to 
the humblest individual, in the lowest condition of society, on 
the wings of merit to soar up, and that no heaven-gifted head 



OFFICERS AND COURTS. 39 

shall be lost to the service of mankind. However high in 
Germany the advantages of a university education are rated, 
and as some may possibly imagine overrated, yet this fact has 
sprung from it, — that the richest and most independent must 
pass some years at one of the High Schools. God be praised ! 
the number of those is few w^ho look upon knowledge as a 
milch-cow, from which they may draw their daily living, and 
on the university as a stall, in which that useful beast is reared 
and cherished. Men have learned to perceive that the posses- 
sion of knowledge is desirable to every one, even if he draw 
no direct worldly advantage therefrom. A noble rivalry to 
push discovery farther and higher, through the power of the 
human mind, and to dig after the truth, has diffused itself far 
and wide. The times are gone by, against which Rabener 
directed the fire of his Satires. I recollect where vSancho 
Panza in the discussion on proverbs says gravely — " Beside 
the watchman I know no one in our city who has attained his 
office in a creditable manner, and in passing must I also 
remember, that he is the only one in our place that had under- 
standing before he had his office." 

It is only by merit that a German can now acquire an 
honourable position in society ; nay, the rich and the noble feel 
a pride in showing the world that in them these merits are not 
wanting. Here is an example of this honourable sentiment. 

" Shall you soon depart to your estate t" inquired a foreigner 

of the Graf von Sch , one of the richest nobles of Germany, 

who studied jurisprudence in Heidelberg. 

" No," replied the Graf, " I shall first submit myself to a 
state's examination." 

" Indeed !" replied the foreigner, " will you then really be- 
come a legal practitioner?'* 

" No ; but I will show to the world, that without my posses- 
sions I could have made my way by my acquirements." 

* The term Rechtspracticant implies the commonest, the lowest, and most 
tedious stage of a statesman's career : in fact, while he is acting as a clerk or 
pupil in the amtmann's office, he acquires practical knowledge of the administra- 
tion of justice. 



40 GERMAN UNIVERSITIES. 

And to this diffusion and recognition of the claims of know- 
ledge, to the scattering abroad of science amongst the people, 
what has more contributed than the foundation of our univer- 
sities ? Out of them go forth the distinguished men who guide 
the helm of the state with circumspection ; out of them the 
teachers of the pulpit and the folks-schools, — to diffuse light and 
improvement throughout society. 



CHAPTER 11. 



GENERAL VIEW OF STUDENT LIFE. 



The word freedom sounds so sweetly that we could not be without it, even did 
it indicate error. — Goethe's Lehen Wahrheit und Dichtung. 



" Free is the Bursch !" exclaims a beautiful student-song — a 
song beaten so threadbare with continual singing, that now we 
seldom hear it sung by the student himself. And true is the 
cry ; or tell me who is freer than he ? Where see we the idea 
of freedom so beautifully realized as in the German student-Ufe 1 
He who has learnt to know this life, may even doubt the truth 
of that otherwise so true expression of Schiller's — 

Freedom is only in the realm of dreams. 

The life of the university is an admirable school, which brings 
the young man quickly to a sense of self-dependence, which in 
a few years brings him to manly knowledge, and builds him up 
to a fitness for intercourse wdth other men. The freedom which 
the student enjoys in a high degree, is truly a strong touchstone, 
— a dangerous rock, on which many a one splits, — but it is the 
only ground on which genuine knowledge can attain its noblest 
bloom. Suddenly liberated from the fetters of school, from the 
strict oversight of parents, steps the young man into this life. 

He is distant from the friends who, as it were, shaped his early 

4* 



42 GENERAL VIEW OF 

being, — from his nearest relatives. His whole life's plan must 
be now fashioned after his own judgment; he may enjoy his 
pleasures with a freer choice, and pursue his studies in a great 
measure according to his owai discretion. He stands free to 
choose his friends from his numerous fellows ; and it is only by 
his own qualities and endowments, that he can convert them 
into friends. When entering on this new scene of life, may he 
never forget the words of Goethe — 

No single thing can suit itself to all. 
Let each look to his ways, 
Where he goes, and where he stays ; 

And he that stands, take heed he do not fall. 

There is a prejudice which yet prevails abroad, that the 
student, especially the foreigner, is exposed to many unplea- 
santnesses through the necessary intercourse with his compa- 
nions ; the obligation to take part in their customs and amuse- 
ments, which are often denounced as sufficiently rough and 
barbarous. This prejudice is totally groundless, at least in the 
present times. The necessity of intercourse, the compulsion, 
have no existence whatever. On the contrary, every one lets 
another act as he likes, and troubles himself no further about 
him, than as his society may be desirable to the individual 
himself It is perfectly at the option of the new comer whether 
he will isolate himself, or in what society he will live ; whether 
he will participate to a certain degree in the student life, or 
even enter into one of their Chores. If he seeks not the society 
of the students, he is perfectly secure not to be sought after 
himself Nor let any one, especially the foreigner, imagine that 
he may claim distinction on account of his wealth, or his high 
birth ; or that he may expect from his university acquaintance 
particular homage on that account ; thereby would he certainly 
expose himself to ridicule and annoyances. Nobility holds in 
Germany no longer such absurd estimation ; few Germans seek 
a man's acquaintance exclusively on account of its possession, 
and those few are despised. This is a necessary consequence 



STUDENT LIFE. 43 

of the constitutional structure of our German states ; and hence 
are the Germans freer than the English, who pride themselves 
so much on their political liberty, and yet are such slaves to 
the nobility. This singularity of the English often becomes very 
ludicrously conspicuous in constitutional Baden, to whose cities 
they so numerously resort; and the students of Heidelberg have 
often made themselves merry over it, especially when the 
English families in a neighbouring city have, each term, picked 
out the address calendar of the university — a Hst of the students 
published each half year — those names which had any mark of 
nobility about them, and invited these elite to their entertain- 
ments. If this is a prominent feeling throughout Germany, it is 
in the universities, at least in the majority of them, the ruling 
one ; and to make clear what I have here said, I may quote the 
following words of Lichtenberg. "An equality like that of the 
French people, exists amongst the students of the universities. 
The poorest thinks himself as good as the Graf, and stoops not 
to him, though he freely leaves him to enjoy any advantages 
that he may possess. Should he set up haughty pretensions, 
that were the way effectually to ensure a denial of any claim. 
They are only proud assumptions, that are intolerable to the 
free man ; for the rest, he is thoroughly disposed to allow to 
him every distinction that he deserves, and what these distinc- 
tions are, he has generally correct means of determining." 

The academical freedom is a possession dear to the student. 
He has defended it with zeal from the ancient times ; and a 
conceived encroachment upon his privileges has often occa- 
sioned general risings of the whole student body against the 
infringing power, which though they may not be wholly com- 
mendable as excesses, were always highly remarkable, and 
indicate vividly the spirit of student life. We allude to the 
marching forth from the university cities, and the denunciations 
which the students have sometimes pronounced, as a severe 
bann upon them. But of this more anon. This freedom has 
the most beneficial influence on the prosecution of the study, 
and the manifold accomplishments of the students. This has 
become perceived and acknowledged by the greatest men ; and 



44 GENERAL VIEW OF 

it has made itself conspicuous that exactly in those colleges 
which enjoy the highest degree of freedom, amongst which 
Heidelberg is numbered, there also prevails the most active 
pursuit of every academical advantage. This free associate-life 
of the students has, moreover, the most decided influence on the 
general cultivation of mind and manners. Flowing from dif- 
ferent countries, these diverse elements meet in the most varied 
points of contact, and mutually impart their experience and 
their customs. The author of the article on Heidelberg in the 
Halle Year-Book, speaks of Heidelberg in this respect, thus : — 
" The variety of nationalities which meet in Heidelberg give 
an intellectual activity to the associate-life of that student-world ; 
and preserve it, at least, from the eternal monotony of fixed 
conventional forms, stale jests, yac?e word-wit, and bookworm 
pedantry. The happy-spirited, practical, intelligent Palatine; 
the simple, honest Swabian, who has seen only the world which 
lies between his own mountains, but with his sound, clear intel- 
lect, penetrates through every thing ; the open Rhinelander ; 
the pithy Hessian; the polite, socially-accomplished, well-bred, 
reserved North-German ; and the grave, self-confident Hanseat ; 
— each brings a different style of accompUshments, a different 
view of life, different experience ; — each race maintains its own 
natural character, without withdrawing itself, however, from 
the impressions of the other nationalities, and the equipoising 
influence of the common elements of their confluent existence. 
Add to these, the numerous foreigners — Swiss, French, Belgian, 
English, Spanish, who soon find themselves disposed to attach 
themselves in preference to one of the German races, and ready, 
through the common medium of social life, to receive some- 
what from all, and give to all somewhat, as it may happen. 
And herewith is connected this important consideration, that 
these foreign frequenters of the university of Heidelberg are 
almost wholly connected by birth with the higher classes of 
society, and are impelled by their professional views towards 
the interests and the movements of social life. They all bring 
thither cultivated mind, and a broad grasp of observation of 
life and manners ; for the increase of which, neither internal 



STUDENT LIFE. 45 

impulse nor external means are wanting. It is indispensable to 
good ton amongst the students of Heidelberg, more or less to 
have travelled. The vicinity of the Rhine, of France, of Swit- 
zerland, excite to still further excursions, for which the vacation 
affords a favourable opportunity ; and those thus returning from 
distant regions, from Paris, from the Alps, or from the sea, 
bring with them new and very varied impressions, — whose 
communication, exchange, and turning to account, again for a 
long time fill up and refresh the intellectual life, not only of the 
individual, but of the meetings of the national Chores, the asso- 
ciations formed from the general body of the students. 

He who would dispute the great advantages derived directly 
from the social life of the students — to which belong not only 
different nations, but different faculties, especially in rapidly 
developing the intellect — would deny the advantages of social 
life altogether ; but wo to the man who is disposed to act upon 
such a notion, and lead an eremitical life in accordance with it ; 
such one-sidedness of judgment must inflict upon him the seve- 
rest penalty. The necessity for social union has always been 
the more sensibly felt, since countrymen and friends who pur- 
sue different studies, are thereby much separated from each 
other. The division into such unions, according to nations and 
landsmanships, was the dictate of nature herself. Their exis- 
tence was acknowledged by the state, and honoured by it as a 
very ancient arrangement. Out of these combinations sprung, 
about the end of the sixteenth, and beginning of the seventeenth 
century, the so-called Orders. When at length their aim began 
to appear not wholly pure, they met with government opposition ; 
and in their place again stood forth the landsmanschafts, similar 
to the early national divisions, but so far different, that to the 
landsmanschafts belonged not only the students who were actu- 
ally natives of the country whose name the union bore, but all 
who chose to enter the same, and submit themselves to its regu- 
lations, were received by it. All these landsmanschafts from 
1815, amalgamated themselves into one common Burschen- 
schaft; till the bloody act of Sand, in 1819, drew the attention 
of government upon that union, and became the occasion that 



46 GENERAL VIEW OF 

the greater number of persons withdrew from the burschen- 
schaft, and again resolved themselves into particular landsman- 
schafts; or, declining to belong to extensive unions, lived politi- 
cally isolated. Those societies which had in the course of 
time assumed so many different forms, now began to frame 
their own laws, and to choose their own leaders. The mem- 
bers of each association had their peculiar badge of distinction, 
others wore their colours ; and in the very nature of things, the 
constitution of such unions became more elaborate ; their regu- 
lations increased in number^ and ceremonies, in order to give 
to the whole exterior pomp and circumstance, could not be 
long wanting. The rulers of an earlier age saw with approval 
that the studentships showed themselves in the greatest possible 
splendour on public and solemn occasions; and the services 
which in times of war the student youth rendered to the state, 
increased their consideration. In those days, the carrying of 
weapons was conditionally permitted. So is it declared in an 
early ordinance published at Heidelberg:—" But it is expressly 
forbidden at evening, and after the tolHng of the bell which calls 
the night-watch to their duty, to go about the city with arms." 
To which is added the menace, " that if any one dares to trans- 
gress this regulation, neither the rector nor the high school shall 
be allowed to liberate or to defend him." 

The people, on all occasions, have delighted especially in 
investing public acts with pageantry ; as for instance, in the 
conferring of the doctoral degree. This was attended with 
great ceremony, and without sparing of cost. The costume of 
professors and directors was a peculiar one ; and the latter even 
in recent years, in many of the High Schools, were expected to 
appear in black silk stockings, short breeches, a two-pointed 
hat, and a sword by the side. We see a remains of this cere- 
monial yet in the public solemnities of the universities, as in 
Heidelberg, on the birthday of the Grand Duke. On this occa- 
sion a procession, composed of the academical professors and of 
a deputation from the students, proceeds from the hall of the 
universities to a public solemn service in the church, and after- 
wards concludes the festival by a dinner. 



STUDENT LIFE. 47 

But to return to the unions. Thus were these sanctioned by 
the state, and their rules acknowledged by it. This relation 
betwixt them and the state yet continues in Bavaria, where the 
Chores are bound to join themselves to the public processions in 
full costume, in order to enhance their splendour. We have 
alluded to the oria;inal division of these into natural landsman- 
schafts ; to their combination into one burschenschaft, or bur- 
schenship ; but in all these, recent times have produced a great 
change. The greater part of the German governments have 
strictly prohibited the existence of any unions whatever, bear 
what name they may. The ground of this prohibition we will 
inquire more nearly into in another place. We will not here 
inquire whether the teachers of the universities were at all 
secretly concerned or concurrent in this measure ; whether it be 
possible, at once, to extirpate, trunk and stalk, these unions, 
which are as fast rooted as the duel itself. We will not ask 
whether these unions do not yet continue to exist in secret ; and 
whether in Heidelberg, with whose students we are seeking in 
these pages more particularly to make ourselves acquainted, this 
possibly be still the case. But, as in other universities, they 
actually do yet exist, and as it is so recently that they have been 
generally forbidden, we will, for once, regard them, as existing, 
and notice more particularly their constitution. 

This constitution is become by degrees very elaborate, and 
that necessarily so, in order to uphold the tottering fabric, since 
Chore life no longer retains the freshness of its early days. In 
the olden time, when every academician belonged to these 
unions, they stretched the authority of their laws over every 
student. But this is no longer the case. Now, the smaller 
proportion of the students only enter into these unions, which 
nevertheless represent, to a certain degree, the studentship ; and 
wherever it becomes necessary to defend the interests of 
Studentdom, the whole body is ready to join them. Certain of 
their laws, whether descending from the early times, and which 
are, therefore, faithfully maintained by the Chore members, or 
those which have been enacted in modern times by the Chores, 
yet equally extend to the whole body, and possess an influence 



48 GENERAL VIEW OF STUDENT LIFE. 

which can be denied by none, since it is equally exerted by the 
Chores over all. 

It is only through these greater organized masses that it is 
possible for studentship to proceed in its oneness. The internal 
arrangements of a Chore possess, on this one account, an inte- 
rest, and deserve our attention the more, inasmuch as we have 
already said these Chores exert an influence over the rest of the 
students ; and this renders it incumbent that before we speak of 
the students at large, we should acquaint ourselves more inti- 
mately with the present Chore life. 



CHAPTER III. 



THE CHORE. 



Now first of all, to drive scholastic folly, 
I'll bring thee to a jovial set, and jolly. 

Goethe's Faust. 



The different Chores have adopted their names, exactly like 
the early landsmanschafts, from the different German nations. 
Yet are these, as we have already hinted, no longer so scrupu- 
lous in the reception of the new members as those were, to 
which none could belong but the actual natives of that country 
whose appellation the union bore. If any man would still per- 
suade himself that the ancient practice is yet continued, he must 
construct in his own head a very peculiar geography. As 
these unions bear the names of the different nations, so the mem- 
bers of each wore pubUcly their respective colours, which, since 
the interdict against them, of course, is no longer the case. 
These colours were not only displayed on the cap, but also on a 
broad band which was worn over the breast. The prohibition 
of the Chore colours was a severe blow to the unions, and the 
students sought in various ways waggishly to surmount it. 
Instead, therefore, of one student, as before, wearing the three 
united colours, as it might be green, white, and black, — each 
Chore having, for the most part, like its nation, three, — now 
went three students arm in arm, each of them wearing one of 
the three colours, so that the whole three colours were combined 

5 



50 STUDENT CHORES, 

in three friends. This attempt, however, led its authors no 

further than into the student-prison. 

The principal of the regular Chores are — 

The Rhenish, whose colours are — blue, red, and white. 

The Hanseatic, " " white, red, and white. 

The Westphalian, " " green, white, and black. 

The Swabian, " " black, yellow, and white. 

The Nassau, " " blue, white, and orange. 

The Swiss, " " green, red, and gold. 

The Sachsen-Borussen, or Prussian, white, green, black and 

white. 

The English, in Leipsic only. 

Besides this, each Chore has its sign, or token ; that is, cer- 
tain letters curiously interwoven, with which it signs its docu- 
ments, and which is known to all the other Chores. The 
number of these Chores is not always the same in the universi- 
ties. Now one dissolves itself on account of the fewness of its 
members ; and now a new one shows itself When a number 
of students find themselves together, who regard themselves 
numerous enough to constitute a Chore, and are desirous to 
become such, the first thing which they proceed to do is to 
elect their leaders. These, as the representatives of the new 
union, appear before the S. C. — that is, the senior convent, or 
assembly of seniors — which is the highest tribunal of the students 
for the settlement of all affairs occurring amongst them. This 
tribunal inquires into the sufficiency of the aspirants, and if the 
result is satisfactory, gives its consent. The Chore appears as 
such at the next Allgemeine. By the Allgemeine is understood 
the meeting of the whole united Chores, which takes place from 
time to time in an Allgemeine Kneipe, or general drinking com- 
pany, in the same manner as each particular Chore holds, every 
evening, its meeting, where the members drink, sing, and enter- 
tain each other. In this Allgemeine, or general meeting, the 
members of the different Chores have a fine opportunity to pick 
quarrels with one another, — in student phrase, to touchiren each 
other; that is, to give offence, so that the swords may not 
rust. The newly established Chore now takes the customary 



OR UNIONS. 51 

course. It strikes up a friendly alliance with one of the already 
existing Chores, in which its members find the greatest number 
of their acquaintances, at the same time that it assumes a hostile 
attitude to another. It falls into dispute with the hostile Chore, 
and what is called the Chore-hatze, a regular Chore-baiting, 
breaks out ; that is, there ensues a general challenging between 
the members of the two Chores. 

The duels thus originated are fought in succession, and the 
Chore is said to paivk itself out ; that is, to drum or fight itself 
forward. Hereby it testifies its mastership with its weapons, 
and intense is the interest which hangs on the result of the Paiv- 
Jtereien, or fights, between the leaders of each Chore. The con- 
querors have their victory celebrated by their companions the 
same evening in the Kneipe, where they triumph over their 
antagonists. When a Chore has thus proved itself, it holds its 
Antritt-Commers — entrance, or opening commerce, or festivity, 
of which more hereafter; and to which the new Chore invites 
the leaders of the other Chores. The qualifications by which a 
member of a Chore can raise himself in it, are practice in the 
exercise of arms, bodily and intellectual dexterity in general ; a 
good stomach, that he may be able to carry plenty of beer; 
and, besides these, a powerful voice is a grand requisite. As 
observed, the members of the Chore elect their leaders. The 
first of these is the Senior. He must possess the qualifications 
we have mentioned in a preeminent degree, and must have 
already passed through the other offices of the Chore, as here 
following. He possesses a great and scarcely limited power, 
and his duty in return is to advance every where the interests of 
the Chore, to exert himself for its credit in connexion with and 
in reference to the other Chores, and thus to maintain its respect, 
so as much as possible to raise its splendour and reputation ; in 
short, he must, on every occasion, defend the honour of the 
Chore. He who possesses the next place of honour is called 
the Consenior, or Zweiter Chargirte, that is, holder of the second 
charge ; and next to him stands the Drittc Chargirte, or third 
oflacer. The Consenior is, as it were, war-minister and general 
in the same person. AH that relates to weapons and their use 



n 



52 STUDENT CHORES, 

belongs to his department ; he has therefore the care of the 
Fecht-boden, or fencing-school, and the weapons of the duel. 
He must be a good swordsman, as he is bound to act as second 
in every occurring case, when any one fights with the weapons 
of the Chore, and no other able swordsman is ready to do the 
duty of his office ; he must be careful to have the weapons of 
the Chore, that is, an armoury of all things which belong to the 
different species of duel, always in the best condition. The 
Dritte Cliargirte represents the finance-minister. He has to 
manage all the money affairs of the Chore, and the Chore 
treasury is under his superintendence. This is, in fact, a trea- 
sury, into which every member of the Chore pays a determinate 
sum, out of which all expenses of the union are defrayed. The 
remainder of the members of the Chore are styled Chore-Bur- 
schen, and Renoncen ; and to these, lastly, add themselves the 
Mit-hnei'panten, or boon-companions, who belong not properly 
to the Chore itself. These are such students as join themselves 
to the Chore, frequent the meetings at the Kneipe, and take part 
in their other pleasures, without involving themselves with the 
affairs of the Chore. They maintain a friendly intercourse with 
the students of the Chore, augment the appearance of the Chore 
by their numbers, and in return enjoy from the union a certain 
degree of protection, with whose weapons they also fight. 
They pay less for the loan of the weapons than the other 
students and are allowed to use them for a fixed sum for a 
whole course, that is, for the half-year. 

On the very lowest step of the Chore stands the Renonce, who 
has neither seat nor voice in the Chore-Convent, or official 
meeting of the Chore. The Renoncen are for the most part 
harassed with menial services. They must convey the weapons 
— which are usually kept in the place of contest, locked up, those 
of each Chore in its own chest — in case of danger from the 
authorities, or of any necessity, to a place of safety ; when there 
is singing in the Kneipe, they must hand round the Commers- 
Boolis, the song-books ; and besides this, on occasion of every 
duel that is to be fought with the weapons of the Chore, they 
must go at night, after the Kneipe is over, to the house of the 



OR UNIONS. 53 

Pawk-doctor, the surgeon of the students, who is always in 
attendance at the duels — and announce to him the fact, with the 
time at which it is to take place. In all the Chores they are 
bound to appear at the Kneipe, on certain days, and failing in 
this respect, are mulct in a pecuniary fine. In different Chores 
this attendance of the Renonce is different : in some, it must be 
daily ; in others, three or four times a week ; and is not to be 
omitted without substantial reason. 

Between the Renoncen and the Chore-Burschen, stands the 
Fuc/is-major — the greater Fox — who is always the oldest Re- 
nonce, and has the right to go into the Chore-Convent, but is not 
entitled there to speak. If the Renonce will advance to the 
rank of Chore-Bursch, it is indispensable that he shall have 
fought three duels. 

The Chore-Bursch has this peculiar duty ; he must settle and 
determine with the strange Kneipe ; that is, when a duel is to be 
fought with the weapons of his Chore, he must seek out him 
who has challenged, in his Kneipe, and announce to him the 
spot and hour at which the duel is to take place. One of the 
Chore-Burschen must always be present at every duel which is 
fought with the weapons of their Chore. When the Driite- 
Chargirte, that is, the treasurer, is unable, from any cause, to 
fulfil the duties of his office, the oldest Chore-Bursch must offi- 
ciate for him ; so also in cases of similar emergency, the Driite- 
Chargirte steps into the place of the second, and he into that 
of the Senior. Besides the obligation to appear on the appointed 
Kneipe days, the Chore members must also, at the fixed hours, 
attend the fencing-school, or pay a pecuniary penalty. The 
reception of a Renonce into the Chore, as well as his advance- 
ment to the rank of Bursch, is accompanied by certain solem- 
nities, and by the reading of the constitution of the union. This 
constitution is held profoundly secret, and cannot pass out of the 
hands of the three Chargirten, who received it at the opening of 
the Chore, from the Senioren-Convent, or official meeting of the 
Seniors of the diflferent Chores — the so-called S. C. Every 
Chore has its weekly Chore-Convent, wherein the Senior presides, 
and the Chore-Burschen are present. Here the affairs of the 

5* 



54 STUDENT CHORES, 

Chore are discussed, and resolutions passed. The Consenior 
opens these resolutions to the Renouncen, in the likewise weekly 
held Renoncen-Convent, or official meeting of the Renoncen, 
which has to carry them into effect, without power to alter them. 
As the Chore-Convent in each Chore is, so to say, its first board 
of Administration, so there is a supreme board over all the Chores, 
and thus, to a certain degree, over the whole body of students. 
It constitutes the highest court of honour of the students. It is 
composed of the whole Cliargirten of the whole Chores. Each 
Chore possesses, in alphabetical rotation, the presidency; and 
the Convents, or meetings, held at the /i;/iez;?e-room of that Chore 
which at that time is in power. The presidency changes monthly, 
so that, as the court is held four times in each month, it falls 
four times in each Chore, which has to defray the cost of the 
beer that is therein drunk. The Senoir of this Chore is president, 
the Consenior vice-president, and the Dritle-Chargirte secretary. 
Under the jurisdiction of this court fall general affairs, those 
which affect the interests of all students; and it passes all the 
resolutions, to which the whole student-body of the university- 
must submit itself. It keeps what students call Ailgemeine Com- 
ment, that is, the student code of laws. It addresses itself to 
protect their rights from all encroachments. It hurls the terrors 
of its Bannstrahl, that is, of its power of excommunication, upon 
students or citizens, upon individuals or large bodies. When a 
burger of the university city, or of the vicinity, whose trade 
derives benefit from the students — for example, an innkeeper, or 
a shopkeeper — treats a student harshly or unjustly, the complaint 
must lay his charge before this court. His memorial to the S. C. 
must be drawn up in due form, according to the nature of its 
contents, and established custom, and must bear the signatiu'e of 
one of the Seniors. The S. C. now makes inquiry into the guilt 
or innocence of the accused. If he be found guilty, it decrees the 
punishment, which consists in proscription, for a longer or shorter 
period. This state of proscription, or being under the bann, is 
very exactly determined in years, months, weeks, and days ; 
and during this period no student, be he in Chore or not in Chore, 
dare to purchase any thing from the condemned, or enter his 



OR UNIONS. 55 

house, otherwise he exposes himself to the certain danger of 
being also laid under the bann, and the Chores regularly send 
their people to see whether any violation of their edict take 
place. For instance, should a proscribed innkeeper have a ball 
or dance in his house, the Chore emissaries will be there to see 
whether any student shows himself at it. The student falls under 
similar punishment who is accused and found guilty of refusing 
to give satisfaction by duel to another that he has insulted. Yet 
is no one compelled to the duel by this regulation. If a student 
will not fight, whether from a principle against it, or any other 
cause, he must, once for all, announce this fact to the S. C, and 
he stands exempt, only, he cannot be allowed to make any 
exception to the rule which he has himself thus laid down. If 
he commits assault or aggression against any student or students, 
having thus sheltered himself from the necessity of the duel, 
though he be no longer amenable to this particular law of the 
student world, he is still amenable to the laws of his country, 
and may be summoned before the amtmann to answer for his 
offence. Should he meanly avail himself of such a declaration 
against fighting, and yet permit himself to insult or annoy his 
fellow-students, so cunningly as not to come within the opera- 
tion of any civil statute, and yet to be offensive and obnoxious 
to the rules and maxims of social life, he will be shunned and 
despised by the students, and will find himself pretty much in 
the same situation as he who is actually under the bann. The 
bann is chiefly launched against students for such offences as 
are considered to amount to loss of honour — such as one student 
giving another a box on the ear, or a student committing a theft ; 
and therefore to him who lies under the Ferruf, or proscription, 
on such account, there remains scarcely an alternative but to 
quit the university, where every channel of intercourse would be 
closed against him, and where he would be shunned by all. 
Whole university cities have at times been laid under the bann, 
examples of which we shall give as we proceed. 

The Chargirten watch over the institutions of the Chores and 
of the students in general, — or, in other words, over the so-called 
Mlgemeine Comment. They settle also the time, place, and 



56 STUDENT CHORES, 

manner of all the public festivities and celebrations. They 
determine whether, and in what style, a torch-train, or a " Vivat," 
shall be got up; in what manner a deceased member of the Chore 
shall be interred; and how the studentship shall be represented 
in the public solemnities of the High School. They direct the 
choice of the ball directors, who take part in the direction of the 
pubUc balls, as, for instance, in those at the Museum at Heidel- 
berg. The presiding Chore fixes the Allgemeine, or general 
assembly, and announces it to the other Chores. 

Besides this court of honour, there also exists a Beer court, 
which has to settle all contentions that arise in the drinking 
companies on points of drinking etiquette, which, as we shall 
hereafter find, are no few in number. To the constitution of 
this beer court, one man is chosen out of each Chore, and the 
oldest Chore-Bursch is generally elected for this purpose. It is 
held in regular routine at every Kneipe-room of the Chores in 
succession. Of the beer court generally we shall, anon, speak 
more particularly, and here need say no more than that before 
the principal Beer court, the accuser must have two witnesses, 
who must give their statements on their word of honour,* and 
the accused must in his defence be supported by two witnesses 
also. Thus constitute, as may be seen from what is already 
stated, these unions, an aristocracy amongst the students, which 
exercises a certain influence over the general academical class; 
which contributes to establish a principle of unity amongst them ; 
and whose members are ready to give up some portion of their 
personal freedom, for the consideration and authority which they 
acquire in the social system ; and so alluring is the feeling of the 
members of Chores in public processions, Commerses, — parties 
which they make to some place in the country for a day's jolli- 
fication, and whither they go in a long train of carriages with 
outriders ; and in Comitaten, — processions formed to accompany 
a departing fellow-student with public honour out of the city, — 
being enabled to play the gentleman, and to renommiren, or in 

* The words in the original are " on their Cerevis," a student term, " on their 
beer ;" meaning, in the beer-court, on their honour. 



OR UNIONS. . 57 

English popular phrase, " to cut a swell," that members are never 
wanting to these societies. 

There yet remains to be mentioned the numerous class of 
students termed, in student phrase, Camels — amongst whom are 
again contemptuously distinguished those who live totally isolated 
and retired, and never on any occasion, or on any account, visit 
the Chores, their Kneips, or take any part in their festivities 
and processions, and are therefore ignominiously dubbed Kettles, 
Bookworms, etc. Tn conclusion, we must employ a few sen- 
tences on the early Burschenschaft and the modern fragments 
of its wreck. 



../ 



CHAPTER IV. 



THE BURSCHENSCHAFT. 



But nothing comes up to our pleasant self-satisfaction, when we erect ourselves 
into judges of the high and the distinguished, of Princes and Statesmen ; find 
public uistitutions clumsy and absurd ; observe only possible and actual impedi- 
ments ; and acknowledge neither the greatness of the intention, nor the co-opera- 
tion, which in every undertaking are to be expected from time and circumstances. 

Hauff's Memoirs of Satan. 



We have already traced the derivation of the word " Bursche," 
and observed that the first unions of the students were designated 
" Landsmanschafts" and " Orders." The origin of the first actual 
Burschenschaft is to be sought in the times when, on the esta- 
blishment of the Rhenish Prince-league, which placed itself sub- 
missively under the sceptre of Napoleon, and the consequent 
abdication of the imperial throne of Germany by Francis II. in 
1806, every heart that beat with a German feeling must have 
been seized with the deepest sorrow at the fall and dashing to 
pieces of the Fatherland. An earnest desire to be able to give 
help to the outraged country — the belief in a God who alone 
was able to free it from its oppressions — filled the heart of the 
patriot, and must have roused him to a tone of mind, than which 
nothing could be farther from that serene enjoyment of life, 
often bordering on actual frivolity, to which the members of 
academical unions were not rarely accustomed to resign them- 
selves. A patriotic spirit, a zealous, earnest aspiration, had 



THE BURSCHENSCHAFT. 59 

already proclaimed itself in the latter years of the former cen- 
tury. Already in its seventieth year had the Poet-league at 
Gottingen organized itself under Klopstock. John Heinrich 
Voss, the two Grafs Stollberg, Holty, and others, belonged to it. 
At the same time tumbled that fabric which the Order of Jesus 
had artfully raised, and the German language was finally esta- 
blished in those rights, out of which it had so long been expelled. 
The lachrymose tribe of common tragedies, and the moving 
comedies with which Kotzebue and Iffland overflowed the stage, 
were compelled to give place to knightly dramas, and Goethe's 
Gotz von Berlichingen became for the hundredth time imitated. 
The German Muse attained a higher flight through Lessing, and 
finally displayed herself to the world in the two noble fofms of 
Schiller and Goethe. The first, far from all lightness, full of 
deep earnestness and noble sentiment, sought chiefly to effect the 
moral elevation and intellectual accompUshment of youth ; and 
the youthful freshness of his language gave to his often more 
philosophical than poetical reflections and sentences, an irresisti- 
ble charm for young minds. Goethe moved in a contrary direc- 
tion. With a predominant sentiment for beauty, and an eminent 
talent for imitation, he sported through every department of 
literature, and floated perpetually with the current of the intel- 
lectual tendency of the age. By such men the German language 
was speedily advanced to its point of perfection ; the French 
language ceased to be the conversation language of the court 
and of the polite circles. Joseph II. introduced the German 
language into the court of Vienna ; after the death of Frederick 
II. it became acknowledged as that of the court of Prussia. 
For a long time Weimar became pre-eminently the capital city 
of German accomplishment; and Goethe, Schiller, Wieland, 
Herder, and other distinguished men, found in the court of 
Weimar, a sphere of action as honourable for themselves as 
advantageous to the literature of their country. The French 
ascendency in literature had thus ceased at the very point of 
time when the French political ascendency came to lie heavy 
and oppressively on the nation ; the literary honour sharpened 
that bitter feeling of political shame, and the more the German 



60 THE BURSCHENSCHAFT. 

people learned to feel it, the stronger became its impatience to 
liberate itself from that condition into which it had been reduced 
by the French. But on whom must this feeling have seized 
more powerfully than on the student? To whom must the 
situation of Germany have occasioned more serious apprehen- 
sions than to him 1 On the one hand, sufficiently instructed to 
perceive the dangers which threatened the political and literary 
liberty of Germany ; on the other, full of youthful spirit, and of 
desires to help the oppressed Fatherland, — such sentiments must 
have weaned the students from the trivial pursuit of Landsman- 
ships and Orders, and accordingly those of the same sentiment 
united themselves into a Burschenschaft. The object of this first 
union was noble; namely, to rescue the Fatherland; and in order 
to be able to do this worthily, to raise up men strengthened to 
the utmost completeness of both moral and physical constitution. 
Thence came it, that bodily exercises, especially gymnastics, 
rose into new existence ; that the Burschen sought to invigorate 
themselves by hardships of every kind; thence, that they strove 
after the greatest possible purity of manners, and displayed a 
spirit of hostility tow^ards the less pure tendencies of the yet 
existing orders. Germany's noblest sons belonged then to the 
Burschenschafts. These unions had their leaders and laws, 
much in the same manner as the Chores. Their leaders were 
the so-called Rugemeister, monitors, or judges, and had their 
speaker, who, in the assembly, made statement to the people of 
whatever affairs appeared of importance to them. In these 
companies ruled no aristocratic power, as was the case in those 
of the Chores, especially towards the younger members. To 
establish a thorough union amongst the students, was a main 
object of the Burschenschaft. On this account the duel was not 
permitted between the members of the union ; and duels between 
the members of the orders were very much circumscribed, and 
only in cases of real injuries, or gross offences, and then under 
certain conditions, permitted by the court of honour. The Bur- 
schenschafts of different university cities stood in combination 
with each other, and members from one city were in the habit 
of making visits to the members of the other university cities. 



THE BURSCHENSCHAFT. 61 

The Burschenschafts, as then constituted, were in most places 
allowed, or at least, tolerated. They celebrated often, and with 
the consent of the prorector, their so-called foundation-day, or 
anniversary, with great banqueting, public processions, music, 
and torch-trains. The members of these companies conducted 
themselves so discreetly, that people willingly suffered them, 
and any little distinctions which might gratify youthful vanity — 
the wearing of the old German costume, the short coat, the 
broad out-lying shirt-collar, with the open breast, the cap which 
but scantily covered the long down-hanging hair, and which, as 
well as the coat, was mostly of black velvet — such old German- 
isms and pecuHar attire — were cheerfully conceded to them. 
Hitherto must the life and movements of the Burschenschaft be 
styled noble. With enthusiasm its members received the call 
to the fight of freedom, which resounded from Prussia in the 
year 1813; and from all the universities streamed forth volun- 
teers, to join themselves to the German host, which was to do 
battle with the oppressors of the Fatherland. Theodore Korner 
has immortahzed in his songs the feelings and sentiments of the 
German youth at that glorious crisis. Many Burschen died, 
like him, the hero's death, inspired with equal zeal for the good 
cause, though it was alone permitted to the poet to flash radiantly 
forth, as from a mirror, the inner glow of his spirit in patriotic 
sons'. 



THE SWORD SONG. 

Sword on my left side gleaming, 
What means thy clear eyes' beaming ? 
Thou look'st with love on me, 
And I have joy in thee. 

Hurrah ! Hurrah ! Hurrah ! 

A soldier bears me dearly, 
Hence beam I forth so cheerly ; 
I am a free man's choice, 
Which makes the Sword rejoice. 
Hurrah ! Hurrah ! Hurrah ! 
6 



62 THE BURSCHENSCHAFT. 

Good Sword ! yes, free I hold thee, 
And in heart's love enfold thee, 
As if thou wert allied 
To me, a lovely bride. 

Hurrah ! Hurrah ! Hurrah ! 

Already it is tendered, 
To thee my life surrendered ; 
Ah ! were we so allied ; 
When wilt thou fetch thy bride 1 
Hurrah ! Hurrah ! Hurrah ! 

The bridal night's red morning 
Breaks to the trumpet's warning ; 
When cannon peals begin, 
Fetch I the loved-one in. 

Hurrah ! Hurrah ! Hurrah ! 

sweet embrace ! untiring, 

1 tarry still desiring; 

Then bridegroom fetch thou me, 
My garland waits for thee. 

Hurrah ! Hurrah ! Hurrah ! 

Why in thy scabbard ringing. 
Thou Iron-joy art springing 
In such wild battle-glow 1 
My Sword, why ring'st thou so 1 

Hurrah ! Hurrah ! Hurrah ! 

Ah ! in the scabbard ringing, 
I long to be forth springing. 
Right wild with battle-glow ; 
Hence, soldier, clink I so ! 

Hurrah I Hurrah ! Hurrah I 

Wait in thy chamber narrow. 
What wouldst thou here, my marrow'? 
Wait in thy chamber, wait ; 
I'll fetch thee, ere 'tis late. 

Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah! 



THE BURSCHENSCHAFT. 63 

Leave me not long in sadness, 
Thou garden of love's gladness, 
Where blood-red roses breathe. 
And blossom flowers of death. 

Hurrah ! Hurrah ! Hurrah ! 

Unsheathe thee then, thou treasure, 
Of soldier-eyes the pleasure ; 
Come forth, my Sword, come forth. 
On ! to the father's hearth ! 

Hurrah ! Hurrah ! Hurrah ! 

Aha ! the glorious wedding, 
Here through the free air treading ! 
How flames in sunshine bright, 
The steel so bridal white ! 

Hurrah ! Hurrah ! Hurrah ! 

On, on, ye brave contenders ! 
Ye German true defenders! 
And if your hearts be cold, 
The loved-one to them hold ! 

Hurrah ! Hurrah ! Hurrah ! 

While on the left side sitting. 
Shy are her looks and flitting ; 
But on the right, the bride 
Trusts God in all her pride. 

Hurrah ! Hurrah ! Hurrah ! 

To iron mouth love-glowing, 
The bridal kiss bestowing, 
Be every lip applied ; 
Curst he who leaves the bride ! 

Hurrah ! Hurrah ! Hurrah ! 

Now let the loved-one sing forth ! 
The dazzling flashes spring forth ! 
Fast dawns the marriage tide. 
Hurrah, thou Iron Bride ! 

Hurrah ! Hurrah ! Hurrah ! 



g4 THE BURSCHENSCHAFT. 

The battle of the people at Leipsic, in the year 1814, freed 
Germany from its chains. For the complete liberation of 
Europe, and for the restoration of state relations on a firm 
foundation, a Congress was determined upon, which in the same 
year was held in Vienna. The task which this congress had 
to discharge was the more difficult, in that the people, inspired 
with a new spirit, in the consciousness of the mighty exertions 
that they had made, cherished hopes and desires whose realiza- 
tion did not coincide with the interests of Princes. The settle- 
ment of territorial relations, and organization of a new general 
constitution for all Germany, engrossed its deliberations. The 
restoration of the German empire, which was demanded by a 
majority of voices, was rendered impossible by the jealousy on 
the part of the kings of the Rhine-league of their sovereignties. 
As those states which had sprung up and become great under 
the former German empire, were now become independent, 
there remained no alternative, if they were to submit themselves 
anew to a paternal authority, but, instead of the old German 
empire, to substitute a sort of family compact. The return of 
Napoleon hastened the settlement of the fundamental principles 
of a German international-compact ; and after eleven sittings, on 
the 8th of June, 1815, the Bundes-Acte, or Act of Convention, 
was signed and published. 

With the rising of the people against Napoleon, a greater life 
and cordiality of religious faith had come back. This expressed 
itself in the Holy Alliance. For the maintenance of European 
peace, the three powers — Austria, Russia, and Prussia — not 
only renewed their alliance, but based it again upon a religious 
foundation. On the 26th Sept. 1815, the Holy Alliance was 
concluded by the three monarchs themselves, without assistance 
or advice of a minister. By this they bound themselves, the 
contracting parties, both in the management of their kingdoms 
and in their transactions with other states, to take alone as their 
guides the precepts of the Christian religion, the commands of 
justice, of love, and peace. They expressed a firm resolution, 
in accordance with the Sacred Writings, to continue in the 
covenant of a true and indissoluble brotherly love ; that national 



THE BURSCHENSCHAFT. 65 

divisions and national animosity should thenceforward retreat 
before the consideration that their people were the common 
members of one and the same Christian empire ; the princes 
themselves should acknowledge that the great Christian nation 
to which they and their people belonged, had in reality no other 
rulers than Him from whom alone power doth proceed, that is 
God, and the Saviour Jesus Christ. At the same time were all 
states solicited to give in their concurrence, and were assured 
that on recognition of these avowed principles of this Alliance, 
with alacrity and love they would be received into the sacred 
covenant. The Holy Alliance found numerous participants. 
Most of the European states sent in their formal adhesion in the 
course of the year 1816. One might imagine that all parties — 
princes and people — were about to co-operate in the sentiment 
so finely expressed in Arndt's famous song — 

THE GERMAN'S FATHERLAND. 

Which is the German's Fatherland ; 
Is't Prussian-land 1 Is't Swabian-land'? 
Is't where on Rhine the red grapes hang'? 
Where o'er the Baltic sea-mews clang ? 

Oh no ! oh no ! oh no ! oh no ! 

His Fatherland must wider go ! 

Which is the German's Fatherland ] 
Is't Styrian, or Bavarian land 1 
Is't where the Marsen's herds do wind !*■ 
I'st where the Markers iron find f 
Oh no ! etc. 

Which is the German's Fatherland 1 
Westphalian, or Pomerian land ? 
Is't where the sand from sea-down blows'? 
Is't where the Danube foaming flows'? 
Oh no ! etc. 

Which is the German's Fatherland ■? 
So name to me the mighty land. 

* Inhabitants of the Marsch. t In the Graffschafl Mark. 

6* 



66 THE BURSCHENSCHAFT. 

The land of Hofer^— or of Tell 1 
Both land and people love I well. 
Oh no ! etc. 

Which is the German's Fatherland! 
So name to me that mighty land. 
The Austrian land it sure must be. 
With glory crowned and victory ! 
Oh no ! etc. 

Which is the German's Fatherland 1 
So name to me that mighty land. 
Is't what the Princes' hollow theft, 
From Emperor and from Empire reft ? 
Oh no ! etc. 

Which is the German's Fatherland 1 
So name me finally that land ! 
Wide as the German free tongue springs, 
And hymns to God in heaven sings ! 

That shall it be ! that shall it be ! 

That land brave German's giv'n to thee ! 

That is the German's Fatherland, 
Where oaths are sworn by grasp of hand ; 
Where in all eyes clear truth doth shine ; 
Where in warm hearts sits love benign. 
That shall it be! etc. 

That is the German's Fatherland, 
Where foreign folly scorn doth brand ; 
Where all that's base 'neath hate must bend ; 
Where all that's noble name we Friend. 

That shall it be ! that shall it be ! 

That whole, the German land shall be ! 

That whole, the German land shall be ! 
O God of Heaven ! hither see ! 
And give us genuine German soul, 
That we may love it high and whole. 
That shall it be ! etc. 

But with the peace which succeeded the second overthrow of 
Napoleon, the expectations of the German nation began to 



THE BURSCHENSCHAFT. 67 

exhibit themselves more clearly ; and out of the disproportion 
between them and that which was done to satisfy them, sprang 
the germs of mistrust between the princes and the people. The 
opening of the Bundesversammlung, or confederated assem- 
bly, Nov. 5, 1816, betrayed not only the imperfection of the 
constitution, which had been thrown together in a hurry, but 
also the uncertainty of the assembly itself, of the extent of its 
delegated powers. Its declaration that Germany was not to 
be considered as a united state, but as a confederation of states 
— (nicht als ein Bundesstaat, sondern als ein Staaten-bund)— ~ 
gave the less satisfaction, as it was just contrary to what was 
desired. The nation desired earnestly a common all-embracing 
bond of union and communion, and not merely a confederacy 
of their sovereign princes, which the interests of the moment, as 
they had originated it, would also dissolve again. 

The general excitement in Germany received a palpable 
point of demand in the thirteenth article of the Act of Confede- 
ration. In most of the German states the anxiety for a repre- 
sentative constitution displayed itself in such a manner as 
rendered in the highest degree difficult an accordance between 
princes and subjects. 

In Prussia especially, the constitution of the monarchy op- 
posed so many difficulties to the estabhshment of a national 
representation, that its postponement was inevitable ; and pas- 
sionate discontent saw in the impracticability nothing but an 
evil disposition. In the other German states, the steps made 
towards the passing of a constitution conducted to as httle 
result ; the princes and popular representatives could not agree, 
since the first were as sparing in their concessions as the latter 
were unbounded in their demands. But the spirit which was 
in Germany striving after the constitutional organization of 
states, had not every where confined itself within due bounds. 
The secret unions which were formed during the ascendency 
of Napoleon still continued. The excitement of the public 
mind, which at an earlier period had been favoured even by 
the government itself, so far from having subsided, had rather 



68 THE BURSCHENSCHAFT. 

received a new impulse, and as it had now necessarily lost its 
outward tendency, it sought to take effect in the heart of 
Germany. The government saw with suspicion the drift of the 
secret unions, and their influence on the Gymnastic schools 
and universities ; they heard with astonishment, the bold lan- 
guage of the rising generation approximating itself to political 
fanaticism. The German Confederation satisfied not these 
heads on fire with ideas of one and a free Germany. The 
restoration of the empire, in connexion with one of the prevail- 
ing theories of conformable national representation, was the 
master desire of a numerous party, which was spread wide 
through Germany, and rendered the universities the seminaries 
of their doctrines. The youth entered with pride into the idea, 
that they were called to work out their salvation, from the cir- 
cumstances to which their fathers had reduced them. Political 
notions of the Middle Ages mingled themselves in the heads of 
the student youth, with the revolutionary doctrines of modern 
times, and received, moreover, from religious enthusiasm, a 
dark addition. Thus degenerated the Burschenschaft, in a 
manner most deeply to be deplored, and demonstrated in a me- 
lancholy degree how near to each other lie the boundaries of 
truth and falsehood. Noble patriotism metamorphosed itself 
into a gloomy fanaticism, — zeal for religion and morals, into 
a hollow hypocrisy, and into a still more dangerous pseudo- 
philosophy. The landsmannschafts became continually weaker 
in the German universities, and the young men every day 
added themselves to the burschenschaft in greater numbers. 
Truly the greater number of them never dreamed to what 
lengths such a political fanaticism could lead them ; and only 
by degrees and unobserved mounted the arrogance of an incon- 
siderate youth, till at length it persuaded itself that it alone had 
fought out the liberation war, and therefore was now called to 
give to Fatherland a new constitution. 

These perilous imaginations grew continually faster and 
faster into that horrible avalanche which threatened to over- 
whelm every thing. What a difference between the years 



THE BURSCHENSCHAFT. 69 

1816 and 1817, when one compares the celebration of the 
peace anniversary of 1816, with that of the celebration of the 
October days of 1817 ! 

On the 18th, 19th, and 20ih of January, 1816, Jena, amongst 
other universities, celebrated the peace-festival in a style and 
manner, which, say the newspapers of the time, deserve to be 
published and handed down to posterity. 

The report of this festival stands thus : — On the 16th day 
of January was issued from the grand-ducal police commis- 
sion, and the city council of Jena, a public programme in 
regard to this festival. In pursuance of its ordinations, on the 
17th, all the bells were rung at noon. Before and after the 
ringing, mortars and cannon were fired at the outer gate. 
At eight o'clock in the evening the Landsturm beat tattoo with 
music. 

On the 18th, in the morning, solemn music sounded from 
the towers, with drum and trumpet, and firing of cannon. At 
nine o'clock assembled at the council-house, the clergy, the 
city authorities, and the elder burgers not belonging to the 
Landsturm, whither also an hour later proceeded the whole 
body of school youth with their teachers. At ten o'clock, 
the assembled company moved thence in procession to the 
city church. A division of the Landsturm, as the procession 
arrived before the church, made way for it. Behind this division 
walked, as leader of the whole procession, the depositor, or 
master of the ceremonies, in a black dress, and next to him 
went the academical officials. Behind these came two beadles, 
with silver sceptres, and cloaks of red cloth, preceding the then 
prorector regens, Herr Hofrath Dr. Seidenstecker, the pro- 
rector being, however, as well as the prorector designatus, 
Herr Hofrath Dr. Voigt, who followed him, supported by 
two students. To the prorectors succeeded the deacons of the 
four faculties, two and two, and then followed the senate, the 
professors, the docenten, and the students, whose banner was 
borne before them. As the train came in front of the council- 
house, that of the city authorities joined it and proceeded with 
it to the church, in which each party took their respective 



70 THE BURSCHENSCHAFT. 

seats. A second division of the Landsturm bronglit up the rear 
of the train. All conducted themselves with the decorum and 
dignity befitting this day, and the appearance of the whole 
congregation excited a lively feeling of something high and 
important. 

When the service was concluded, the train quitted the church 
in the same order in which it had entered it. At the council- 
house, the procession of the city authorities, and those who had 
joined them, separated from that of the academicians, who di- 
rected their course again to the university, where they broke off. 

The students now betook themselves to the market-place, and 
after the public appointed religious service which they had just 
attended, performed a private act of devotion, which in its sim- 
plicity and unostentatiousness was extremely striking and affect- 
ing. Ranged in a circle, the banner and the leaders of the pro- 
cession in its centre with uncovered heads, they sung a hymn, 
written for the occasion by Herr Ullmann of Liefland, with 
such truth and depth of feeling, that Herr Hofrath Gabler, who 
with other professors, was present at this solemnity, seized with 
enthusiastic emotion by its power, thanked the students with 
heart-enkindled words for the elevation of soul that they had 
occasioned. A beautiful conclusion of all the religious and 
public solemnities of this day ! for that many houses in the 
evening, especially in the market-p!ace, were found illuminated, 
was rather a testimony of individual joy, which took this way 
to display itself. 

The follow^ing day, the 19th of January, only was left to the 
students to make their arrangements for their peace anniversary. 
And now once more, in how German, how brave, how noble 
a style was every festive preparation completed ! 

In the Rau-Thal, through which the haughty enemy of the 
German name had formerly led his robber-horde to victory, an 
Oak was selected, that, the witness of former overthrow, it might 
now, as a memorial of the achieved liberty of Germany — of new 
flourishing man's strength, be planted on that spot which, ten 
years before, on the most unfortunate of all days, covered with 
rubbish and ashes, had been consecrated to a dreadful remem- 



THE BUESCHENSCHAFT. 71 

brance. On the morning of the 19!h, the oak was taken from 
its old location, and towards noon brought to the city, where it 
was received by the students with joyful hearts, and in proces- 
sion of two and two, conducted with music to the square, the 
scene of former desolation. On the platz, a division of the 
Landsturm had stationed itself, and assisted to form the circle ; 
a division of the mounted Landsturm had ridden in advance of 
the tree, A vast body of spectators stood round the platz ! many 
of the professors, and those who took interest in the scene, sta- 
tioned themselves near the oak. 

When all was ready for the planting of the oak, a hymn 
composed for the occasion by Herr Goering, from Weimar, to 
a tune furnished by Herr Cotta, of Eisenach, was sung by the 
students, fervently and solemnly, with uncovered heads as on 
the day before ; then stepped Herr Horn of Mechlenberg forth 
from the inner circle, and delivered a pregnant and powerful 
speech with equal animation and grace. The attention and 
silence of the vast throng of spectators during the delivery of 
this speech, testified the impression it produced, to say nothing 
of its subsequent influence. The speech ended ; the planting of 
the oak was performed, accompanied by the singing of a hymn, 
also composed by Herr Goering, to a tune by Herr Cotta. The 
professors present testified their interest and delight in the trans- 
action, by each of them scattering three handfuls of earth on the 
roots of the planted oak. But numbers of the maidens and 
young ladies bound ribands on the significant tree, eloquent with 
so many significations, thereby proclaiming the strength, the 
desires, the sentiments, and hopes of their hearts. 

As now the oak, to which we will all wish a joyful and pros- 
perous growth, especially in its national indications, was planted, 
Herr Horn pronounced the iambics written for the occasion by 
Herr Ullmann, with the tone and feeling appropriate to their 
office and contents. The whole transaction was concluded by 
the singing of hymns, composed by Herr Neidhart, the elder of 
Ebersdorf in Voigtland, and breathing a noble, powerful spirit, 
for right and freedom, which animated the whole nation, and 
in its own language awarded to the festival its high and sig- 



72 THE BURSCHEiNSCHAFT. 

nificant value. The occasion thus brought to its close — a solem- 
nity which our grandchildren may well hold sacred — the stu- 
dents marched in procession of two to the market-place, where 
they excited one another in brotherly union, with Arndt's thrill- 
ing hymn, to unity of spirit and faithful confidence in the senti- 
ments then and there implanted. 



THE UNIOx\ SONG. 

In happy hour have we united, 

A mighty and a German choir ! 
And hence from every soul excited, 

Burst hymns of praise to God once more ; 
Since we stand here o'er high things musing. 

With feelings holy and profound, 
So the full heart its joy diffusing, 

Must swell with all its chords the sound. 

To whom shall first our thanks be pealed 1 

To God's most high and wondrous name, 
Who in our shame's long night revealed, 

Arose before us all in flame. 
Who blasted all our foes' disdaining ; 

Our strength and beauty all restored ; 
Who on the stars for ever reigning, 

Sits there from age to age adored. 

Our second wish — to whom then flies it? 

To Fatherland's high glory whole. 
Perdition seize all who despise it, 

Hail ! he who yields it life and soul ! 
Through virtues pass it still be-wondered ; 

Beloved for honesty and right, 
Proud from year-hundred to year-hundred. 

In strength and honour ever bright. 

To joys of German men, — a measure ! 

One third— in clearer joy and thanks; 
For freedom is the German pleasure; 

For freedom leads our German ranks. 



THE BURSCHENSCHAFT. 73 

For it to live, for it to perish, — 

Each German bosom burns for this ; 
For this the hero-death to cherish, 

Is German honour, German bliss. 

The fourth — in solemn consecration, — 

Hands, hearts aloft together go ! 
Thou ancient truth — and of our nation, 

Thou faith, united — " live ye hoch !" 
With these all doubts and fears vi'e banish, 

These of our bond are rock and shield ; 
The world indeed itself must vanish. 

When men their plighted word shall yield. 

Close in, — the sacred circle throng now, 

And raise the clash of triumph strong ; 
From heart to heart, from tongue to tongue now, 

Like lightning send this joyful song : — 
The Word that knits our bond for ever ; 

The Good no fiend can from us rend, — 
Nor tyrant villany can sever, — 

Believe ! — maintain it to the end ! 



The afternoon and evening were dedicated by them to 
joyous entertainment at the Feurstenkeller, and with testimo- 
nies of love and respect towards their teachers, that remarkable 
and distinguished day terminated. The sacred celebration of 
the peace-festival on the part of the university, was held on 
Sunday, the 21st February. The church service itself was 
very simple, but highly solemn, and worthy of the high thoughts 
which the celebration of such a day could not fail to call forth. 
There remained nothing to desire, but that the noble spirit and 
sterling sentiments which had every where displayed themselves 
so luminously on that day, should continue to be the universal 
ruling ones. 

So details a newspaper of the time, the celebration of this 
beautiful festival. But the concluding wish found not its fulfil- 
ment in the following year — for in the year 1817 was held the 
festival on the Wartburg ; in the next year the congress of the 

7 



74 THE BURSCHENSCHAFT. 

Burschenschaft at Jena; and in 1819 transpired the bloody 
deed of Sand, a warning sign of the progress of poUtical fana- 
ticism from its innocent commencement, to that act which 
found its just reward on the scaffold. 

In the year 1817 the celebration of the reformation anni- 
versary faUing in conjunction with the anniversary of the 
Leipsic Folksbattle, it was too exciting an occasion for the 
young state reformers not to seize on it for the demonstration 
of their views and aims. The festival was therefore celebrated 
on the 18th of October, by the students of most of the German 
universities on the Wartburg, in a manner which quickly 
excited the attention of the governments. The Prussian go-^ 
vernment, in particular, ordered the trial of all those who had 
taken part in the festival; and several professors who had been 
present, particularly Fries, came under judicial examination. 
From these trials it was made obvious that the few only were 
in the secret of the proposed auto-da-fe to be held in Eisenach, 
but that the majority regarded it as a desirable opportunity for 
drawing the Burschenschaft into a more intimate and close 
union, so that it might the more powerfully operate against the 
landsmanschafts. 

The festival was, like the prior one of October, celebrated 
with much enthusiasm, with sacred service, with singing of 
Fatherland hymns, and other solemnities : but speeches were 
delivered, on this occasion, which had not a thoroughly correct 
tendency, and must appear the more unfitting from the mouth 
of a teacher of youth. On the evening of the 18th of October, 
as formerly on that night, fires blazed up on every hill top ; but 
those of the Burschenschaft who had stationed themselves 
around the fire on the Wartburg, cast into the flames the 
German History of Kotzebue, as well as some other detested 
writings. None of the professors, however, were present at 
this transaction, and none of the speeches connected therewith 
were delivered by them. That the acts of the Congress of 
Vienna had been also burnt there, was proved by the inquiry to 
be false. 

The Wartburg festival was concluded on the 19th of October 



THE BURSCHENSCHAFT. 75 

by the assembled participants, to the number of about 600, 
taking the sacrament in the church. The consequence of this 
festival was the promotion of the idea here conceived, of one 
universal German Burschenschafi ; that the union of the whole 
body of student youth must pervade, and be the means of 
working out, the union of the whole Fatherland. 

On the 21st of October, 1818, at Jena, a congress of students, 
from fourteen universities, was held; then and there the union 
of the Burschenschafts was discussed, and its constitution esta- 
blished. " One Empire, one Religion, Freedom and Equality !" 
This was the watchword of the combination, which, since the 
Wartburg festival, had exchanged its former colours, namely, 
green, blue, and white, for the union badge, black, red, and a 
metallic or embroidered oak leaf in the cap. To this circum- 
stance alludes the following celebrated song — 



ARE GERMAN HEARTS. 

Are German hearts with strength and courage beating? 

There to the clang of beakers gleams the sword, 
And true and steadfast in our place of meeting, 
We peal aloud in song the fiery word ! 

Though rocks and oak trees shiver, 
We, we will tremble never ! 
Strong like the tempest see the youths go by, 
For Fatherland to combat and to die ! 



Red, red as true-love, be the brother token, 
And pure like gold the soul within imprest, 

And that in death our spirits be not broken, 
Black be the ribbon bound about the breast. 
Though rocks, etc. 

We know the strength in honest swords residing, 
Bold is the brow, and strong the arm to smite ; 

We fail not, faint not, in the right confiding, 
When calls the Fatherland his sons to fight. 
Though rocks, etc. 



76 THE BURSCHENSCHAFT. 

So, on the German sword, to this alliance, 
In life and death let solemn faith be vow'd ! 

Up, Brothers, up ! the Fatherland's reliance, 
And to the blood-red morning- cry aloud. 

Though rocks, etc. 

And thou, Beloved, who in hours the dearest. 

Hast nerved thy friend with many a look and tone, 

For thee my heart will beat when death comes nearest, 
For unto true love change is never known. 

Though rocks, etc. 

And now, since fate may tear us from each other, 

Let each man grasp of each the brother-hand, 
And swear once more, O every German Brother, 
Truth to the bond, truth to the Fatherland ! 
Though rocks and oak-trees shiver, 
We, we will tremble never ! 
Strong like the tempest see the youths go by, 
For Fatherland to combat and to die ! 



The laws of the Burschenschaft, or its constitution, bore the 
name — " Custom of the Burschenschaft." Amongst other things 
stand the following : 

" In the German Fatherland we will live and move. We 
will perish with it, or die free in it, if God's great call ordain. 
Live the German speech for ever ! Flourish the true chivalry ! 
Let Germany be free ! 

" He who avows these ideas, and is willing to contend for 
their advancement, is our beloved brother. To accomplish 
these high endeavours, there must be a universal free Burschen- 
schaft throughout all Germany. 

" There can no salvation come to our beloved Germany 
unless through such a free and universal Burschenschaft, in 
which Germany's noblest youth continues intimately fraternized, 
in which every one learns to know his duty — and which Bur- 
schenschaft shall always find the Gymnastic schools its defence 
and alarm-post. 



THE BURSCHENSCHAFT. 77 

" We will never apply the word Fatherland to that state in 
which we were born : Germany is our Fatherland ; the state in 
which we are born is our Home. 

" We will hold these principles firmly and honourably ; spread 
them by every possible means ; and with all our power, now 
as youths, and hereafter as men, labour to bring them into 
exsrcise. 

" When we quit the High School, and are invested with any 
office, be it high or low, we will fulfil the same honourably, true 
to Prince and Fatherland, and in such a manner administer it 
as shall be in accordance with the spirit of these principles. 

" The law of the people shall be the will of the Prince. 
Liberty and Equality are the highest good ; after which we 
have to strive, and from which strift no pious and honest Ger- 
man can ever desist. 

" Every student who maintains honour and virtue, shall be a 
free German Bursche : subject to no one ; inferior to no one ; 
all shall be equal, obeying only the laws." 

From this time forward the union laboured actively at throw- 
ing out and determining the principles of a future civil and eccle- 
siastical constitution for Germany, and in the dissemination of 
revolutionary writings. But unfortunately, as in all times of 
high excitement, spirits of a reckless and darker character min- 
gled themselves with the nobler ones of liberty : for the realiza- 
tion of their intrinsically criminal wishes, criminal means also 
were necessary, and the spirit of youth was thus unconsciously 
conducted by fanaticism into unhallowed and bloodthirsty prin- 
ciples, and in the bosom of the Burschenschaft union, formed 
itself a closer union of The Unrestricted, whose name revealed 
sufficiently, that they would hesitate at no means by which they 
might arrive at their object. The misguided and blamable 
tendency of this spirit, to the horror of many who unconsciously 
implicated themselves in its criminal proceedings, was brought 
to hght by some striking circumstances. On the 23d of March, 
1819, the student Sand murdered the Russian Counsellor of 
State, Von Kotzebue, on no other ground than that he held him 
to be a spy of the Russian government, and an enemy of German 

7* 



78 THE BURSCHENSCHAFT. 

liberty. He undertook the action with the full persuasion that 
it was a just and noble deed, and his trial revealed the horrible 
gulf of political immorality, unto the very brink of which was 
brought the youth of Germany. A somewhat particular account 
of this transaction, and of the circumstances of Sand's life, may 
fittingly here find a place : and which may be relied on, being 
derived from the relation published by the President of the Com- 
mission for the trial of Sand, the State Counsellor, Von Hohen- 
horst himself. 



CHAPTER V. 



KARL LTJDWIG SAND. 



Karl Ludwig Sand was born at Wunsiedel, a little town in 
the district of Baireuth, lying in the Fichtel Mountains, on the 
5th of October, 1795. His father was pensionary officer of 
justice ; and the family, which consisted of three sons and two 
daughters, lived in the most dehghtful domestic harmony. Sand 
grew up in his paternal city, under the most careful guidance 
of his parents, whose good and thorough education, and moral 
training, such are his own words, in comparison with that of 
many, he never was able sufficiently to praise. There lay in 
him the strongest and most delightful recollection of his birth- 
place. Its very situation, he asserted, in the bosom of noble 
mountains, in the midst of the great Fatherland, had wrought 
powerfully upon his disposition of mind, which, especially since 
much sickness in his early youth, had always been very still. 
In truth, Sand passed his years of childhood in great weakness 
and many bodily ailments. In his seventh year he took natu- 
rally the small-pox, and of a very bad kind, which left behind 
them serious effects, especially a dangerous ulcer in the head, 
of which the grisly scars always continued visible. On that 
account the physicians forbade all mental exercise, and his proper 
instruction could only be commenced at home in his tenth year.. 
His father explained, that a dejection of mind which long clung 
to him was a consequence of the weakness which these com- 
plaints had left upon ; and therefore, where parents in general 



80 THE NARRATIVE OF 

would put restraint on young people of lively temperament, he, 
on the contrary, had always been anxious that his son's dispo- 
sition should not be further depressed. After Sand had received 
his first instruction from the tutor, he was sent to the Lyceum, 
in Wunsiedel. He afterwards followed his teacher to the Gym- 
nasium in Hof, there acquired the first elements of general edu- 
cation, and proceeded in the study of ancient languages. Even 
at this early period he entertained a vehement hatred to the 
French. As in the spring of 1812 a great military train passed 
through Hof, he would neither see the march of the French nor 
especially Napoleon, since he believed that he could not endure 
to be in the presence of the arch enemy of his native land, with- 
out an attempt to rush upon him and destroy him. 

He returned thence to his parents, with whom he continued 
till they resolved to send him to Regensburg, where he pro- 
ceeded towards the end of the year 1812, with his tutor Saal- 
franc, and always called to mind with extreme pleasure his 
abode there. The testimonies of his life and habits during his 
sojourn in Hof and Regensburg, are greatly to his credit. His 
good capacity, his restless diligence, his deep study, and not 
less his highly moral conduct, were greatly applauded. In his 
18th year awoke in Sand the resolve to co-operate in doing 
battle with the common foe of his country. He may speak for 
himself. 

" As in the spring of 1813 the French fled homewards, and 
Germany began to rouse itself to take vengeance for the shame 
inflicted on it, there awoke in me a new-born joy, a fresh mind, 
a new life ; and from that hour I doubted no more of a com- 
plete liberation from the old slavery, although the heavens 
became so unpropitious to the Germans. With eager heart 
and yet with all possible circumspection, I lived in the news- 
papers of the time; and in the autumn of 1813, which I spent 
at home, I obtained the permission to join myself to the host 
of Germany, when in the mean time, came the intelligence of 
the battle of Leipsic, which rendered my going forth unneces- 
sary." 



KARL LUDWIG SAND. 81 

Sand returned once more to Regensburg, and proceeded 
thence to the university of Tiibingen. Here he passed quietly 
the winter half-year of 1814-15, and had begun the second 
half-year when Napoleon i^etarned from Elba, and Sand felt 
himself called to stand forth with his countrymen in defence of 
Germany. His testimonies from TiJbingen were highly credit- 
able, yet they expressed suspicions that during his abode there 
he had been a member of a political union called Teutonia. 
Sand then first, on the day before his departure, announced to 
his parents his determination to enter into the army, and took 
farewell of them by letter. The style and tendency of his 
letter differ essentially from his subsequent compositions. We 
see in it only the youth full of zeal and fervour for his country, 
— who, pure, and without mixture of his subsequent political 
religious exaltation, avows his intimation to fight to the death 
for his country and kindred. " With an inward struggle," 
wrote he amongst other things, " held I myself back the last 
time when the liberation of Germany was at stake, and it was 
only the conviction that many thousands then stood in the field, 
eager for battle and victory for the welfare of Germany, that 
could detain me." In another place — " The spirit at home 
and in Bavaria may be as it will, I hold it for the highest duty 
to fight for the liberty of my German Fatherland; of my dear 
parents, brothers, and sisters; and of all the good people who 
love me ; and, should numbers gain the advantage over us, to 
contend to the very last gasp, and triumph over a tyrant in 
death. Ever shall your beloved images hover round me; ever 
will I have God before my eyes and in my heart, that I may be 
strengthened to bear with serenity all the fatigues and dangers 
of this holy war. Yet wherefore make the hearts of each 
other so heavy? We alone have the right, the sacred cause. 
There is a righteous God, and how then shall we not have the 
victory V 

The letter concludes with the words of Theodore Korner, 
which Sand had often in his mouth-— 



82 THE NARRATIVE OF 

Though rages hell itself, 
God, thy mighty hand, 
Hurls down the tower of lies. 



Perchance high o'er the slaughtered foes 
The Star of Peace shall rise. 

Sand set out with two friends on the way through Stuttgard 
to Heidelberg, where he stayed some days, and then went on 
to Mannheim, where he announced himself to the general staff 
of Graf Rechberg, and was received as cadet in the volunteer 
Jagers of the Rezat Circle. Before his departure from Tubin- 
gen, a friend presented him with a small riband which he 
continually wore during the campaign, and afterwards, at his 
arrest, it was still found round his neck. It was green and 
white. The troops, which Sand's bi'other also had now joined, 
already in Homberg, met the news of the victory of Waterloo ; 
they marched forward, however, to Meaux, and into the neigh- 
bourhood of Fontainbleau, but soon after drew into cantonments 
in Auxurre, and from thence marched directly back, and 
entered Anspach the 2d of December, 1815. Sand remem- 
bered his military career with the highest dissatisfaction, since, 
as he expressed himself, he had never had the good fortune to 
kill a Frenchman. He had written upon his riband these 
words: — "With this dedicated I myself in 1815 to death. 
Was it not in earnest? Would I have recrossed the Rhine 
again except as a conqueror !" 

Sand betook himself to Erlangen, and occupied himself there 
two years with the study of theology. Here it happened that 
in the summer of 1817, one of his dearest friends, while bathing, 
was drowned before his eyes, and he himself was in great 
danger of his life. This loss operated so strongly on his mind, 
that as he himself declared, he believed that the spring of life 
was now over, and that its summer had now shown itself. 
Consoled by his teachers and friends, he now gave the first 
proof of his talents for preaching in the High Church at 
Erlangen, continued there till the end of the half year, and then 
went to Jena. Sand conducted himself during his residence in 



KARL LUDWIG SAND. 83 

Erlangen as exemplarily as before, yet he was at the same 
time an active member of the Teutonia there ; in fact he was 
twice a leader of this union, and drew up a constitution for the 
Burschenschaft, under the title of the Erlangen Burschenschaft- 
Custom. From Erlangen and Jena he made several short 
journeys, and amongst them the one to Eisenach, which 
proved so influential on his future life. There he joined in the 
celebration of the festival on the Wartburg, on the 18th of 
October, 1817, and his part in this transaction he thus de- 
scribes : — 

" On the 17th of October I arrived in Eisenach, and was 
chosen on the festival-committee. I here helped to keep order; 
heard the speeches on the Wartburg, but did not speak myself; 
I went in the evening to the fire, and saw the books burnt. On 
the following morning I heard speeches for the reconcilement 
of the disputes of many of the student-quarrels of former years, 
and listened to the splendid orations on the Fatherland. I 
accompanied the Burschen to the church, and partook of the 
sacrament; then was the festival ended, and I returned to 
Jena." He adds, that it had been a festival simply for the 
elevation of the sacred cause, and that no determinate object 
besides had been contemplated. 

In Jena, Sand continued to educate himself, in order, as he 
expressed himself, the better to look about himself, and to 
ground himself fairly in the different departments of knowledge ; 
till suddenly the inner call for ever summoned him away. His 
teachers there gave their testimony that he always appeared as 
a grave, quiet, and discreet man, zealously striving after excel- 
lence. That he was accustomed to speak little, since speaking 
appeared a difficulty to him ; but that what he did say, was 
always prudent, well-considered, and sensible, and that his 
deportment had nothing displeasing in it, although it was ener- 
getic and firm. During his abode in Jena, he was a member of 
the so-called Burschenschaft, but at the same time also of 
another company, which he termed a Literary Union. He 
made from Jena a journey into North Germany, and visited 
many of the mbst celebrated battle-fields of both past and 



84 THE NARRATIVE OF 

modern times. After his return he proceeded again with his 
studies with unremitting dihgence, and had obtained permission 
from his parents to continue another half-year in Jena, when 
he suddenly broke off, on the 9th of March, 1819, at four 
o'clock in the morning, and set out on his last fatally eventful 
journey towards Mannheim. 

We have thus followed the thread of Sand's history to this 
period with sufficient minuteness, and we have permitted our- 
selves to sketch it with the more exactness, since it is particu- 
larly interesting to trace all the causes which could conduct a 
character, otherwise so excellent, to such a crime; — as, more- 
over, conjectures respecting these causes can only be rightly 
founded on a real knowledge of the circumstances of the case, 
and from these only can those conclusions be drawn, which 
were, though without effect, employed in the defence of this singu- 
lar man. In his history we behold the fac-simile of the history of 
the whole Burschenschaft to which he belonged. A description 
of his person, from that officially drawn up, may precede the re- 
lation of his unhappy deed. In the protocol it stands thus : — 

" Sand was in age twenty-three and a half years ; stood five 
feet six inches high ; had strong black hair and eyebrows ; a 
high forehead, gray eyes, longish nose, mouth of middle size, 
dark-brown very weak beard, ordinary chin, broad countenance, 
tolerably healthy colour, with some pock-marks in the face." His 
look was open, and for the most part friendly, but not eminently 
intellectual ; his physiognomy good-natured, but not especially 
interesting ; his visage might be termed an involuntary mirror 
of his mind. So painted themselves wrath and scorn upon it, 
when the speech turned upon Kotzebue and his connexion with 
Germany; so might be read in it a painful, or an hostile feeling, 
when the principles of his system must be attacked; so that, 
in the end, very little attention became necessary to discern by 
it, when his answers did not contain the truth. The play of 
the muscles of his forehead was particularly strikingly acted 
upon by an internal feeling of resistance, which generally rose 
in him when he desired by some means to conceal the truth. 

Kotzebue's writings had been long disliked by Sand. Many 



KARL LUDWIG SAND. 85 

of his early assertions betray it. Such was his observation to 
his father : — " Of what use is the man's literary talent, when the 
German heart is wanting ?" On the burning of his History of 
Germany, on the Wartburg, he became immediately watchful 
of him ; but still more, when shortly afterwards his literary 
Wochenblatt, or weekly paper, appeared. In this publication, 
Kotzebue promulgated his opinions often and variously on the 
then state of German affairs, and many of his views must have 
given great displeasure. Thus, he contended especially against 
the promotion of a combined and constitutional government in 
Germany, and asserted that the loud demand for this was by 
no means the voice of the people, of whom he very much 
doubted, whether they wanted any constitution at all. For this 
bold assertion, Kotzebue was instantly attacked and ridiculed 
on all sides. A specimen of the missiles launched against him 
on the occasion, may be given from an article in the " Zeitung 
fijr die elegante Welt," — News for the Elegant World, in the 
year 1818 : — 

" This serious doubt (that of Kotzebue) has fallen heavily on 
the heart. We have, therefore, with eagerness undertaken the 
following proposal for its solution. In Kotzebue's right hand 
lies, in fact, the means to bring the matter to a tolerable cer- 
tainty. If that gentleman will in future take the field against 
the clamour for a constitution in all his Plays with the same 
sober earnestness, and jibe and joke, with which he has power- 
fully and perseveringly attacked other follies, then will the 
success or the failure of his piece throw great light on the 
sentiments of the people; and the multitude who, Herr von 
Kotzebue so justly says, remain silent on the matter in debate — 
that means, they 'print nothing on it — will certainly, by applaud- 
ing or censuring, clapping or hissing, speak out. Should the 
multitude, by hissing out anti-constitutional pieces, declare for a 
constitution, so might the theatre immediately furnish the govern- 
ment with a proof whether the declaration was worthy of notice. 
They might now, as was done in Paris, after the acting of 
Germanica, march soldiers — actual soldiers— upon the stage, 
and let tliem present arms to the pit. If the multitude now 

8 



86 THE NARRATIVE OF 

applauded or ran away, it would be the height, of the ridiculous 
to give them a constitution, since it would be manifest that they 
had not courage to maintain themsehes against the hand of 
power. But hissed and clamoured they still, it would be time 
" to prepare the demanded preparations for the preparation of a 
constitution."* 

Sand assigned the ground of his hate against Kotzebue, imme- 
diately in the opening of his trial, and he reiterated the same as 
his actuating motive at its close ; namely, — in the evening after 
the murder, having lost his voice, and being only able to express 
himself by signs, he requested paper, and wrote with a black- 
lead pencil these scarcely legible words: — "August von Kotze- 
bue is the corrupter of youth," — alluding to Kotzebue's fre- 
quently slippery writings, as ' Barth with the Iron Brow,' and 
such like, — " the slanderer of our people's history, and the Rus- 
sian spy upon our Fatherland." 

Sand asserted, that by the insight which he had obtained into 
the character and position of Kotzebue, he immediately per- 
ceived that it was impossible that he could much longer continue 
to live in that manner; but the resolution to destroy him with 
his own hand did not awake suddenly in him, it demanded 
gradual growth, and came not to maturity without a severe 
strife in his own bosom. The well-known history of the dis- 
covered bulletin at length threw unquenchable fuel on his burn- 
ing hatred against Kotzebue. 

Kotzebue was, in fact, commissioned by the Russian govern- 
ment to furnish it with full reports on the political affairs and 
relations of Germany, on the predominant popular opinion, and 
on its literary transactions. He could, in truth, no more be 
styled a spy than an ambassador can ; but the reports which he 
delivered — the false and detestable statements regarding Ger- 
many which he made in them, deserve the severest condemna- 
tion. No one was aware of this secret practice of Kotzebue's, 
till, through the faithlessness of a copyist, such a bulletin was 
sent to the well-known historian Luden, then the editor of the 

* Play on the grandiloquent words of Kotzebue. 



KARL LUDWIG SAND. 87 

Jena " Nemesis," a literary paper. The bulletin contained six- 
teen paragraphs upon Steffens (a writer on the state of those 
times), Schmalz, Crome, the AUemannia, an opposition paper, 
the Nemesis, Jung Stilling, English newspapers, mischievous 
nature of freedom of the press, and, finally, a sort of apology for 
serfdom. Monarchy was panegyrized in this bulletin, and 
Luden was represented as a learned man, who, with others of 
the learned, longed heartily for a revolution, that they might 
play their parts as popular speakers, deputies, and representa- 
tives. Luden, enraged at these calumnies, pubHshed the bulletin 
in the Nemesis, and commented on it in the most amusing man- 
ner. Kotzebue, who had immediate information of this fact, 
procured an order from the Weimar government for the seizure 
of these sheets, at the moment they should be ready for issue : 
but Wieland, the editor of the opposition paper, had already 
received proof-sheets of the article, and caused it to appear at 
the same time in the People's Friend, which he edited, with still 
more biting remarks ; since Luden, in the Nemesis, had ex- 
pressed some doubts whether Kotzebue were really the author 
of these malicious calumnies. A long legal process took place 
between Kotzebue and the learned editors, and proceedings 
were laid before the Spruch Collegium — College of Arbitration 
of the University of Leipsic. These gentlemen were declared 
by this tribunal, guilty of a literary robbery upon Kotzebue, 
since the bulletin was not intended or delivered out by him for 
publication ; but after the death of Kotzebue in the following 
year, they were declared free from all penalty by the High Court 
of Appeal in Weimar. 

The fact, however, which finally and at once sealed the 
determination of Sand, was the appearance of the work of 
Stourdze, and Kotzebue's standing forth as his defender. 
Stourdze, a Russian, published a most odious and miserable 
volume, in which he lauded absolute monarchy, railed against 
freedom of the press, misrepresented the spirit of the German 
High Schools in the most abominable terms, and at the same 
time advised that they should be stripped of all their rights and 
privileges, and laid under the strictest discipline. The author 



88 THE NARRATIVE OF 

was formally accused by the Burschenschaft of Jena for his 
calumnies, to the Grand Duke of Weimar, who laid the case 
before the Bundestag. Stourdze defended himself in the public 
papers ; two youths, not students, but belonging to the Burschen- 
schaft, afterwards challenged him to single combat, whom, 
however, he answered only with words in the newspapers. 

Sand now brooded a whole half-year in irresolution over this 
thought — whether he should devote himself as the instrument 
for taking out of the way this, in his eyes, so dangerous an 
enemy of the weal of the German people. " The determina- 
tion," said he, "must first progress in myself to a greater maturity, 
since I have partly to contend in myself with the natural shrink- 
ing from the performance of such a deed, and partly with the 
oft recurring thought that T am worthy of and qualified for 
something better, by the character of my mind, and my already 
acquired accomplishments. I have also waited for a third, since 
I had as good a right to wait for a third, as he to wait for me. 
But as I found no one, this was likewise a ground of determina- 
tion for myself Oft have I thought—' thou canst quietly live 
on, if but a third person undertake the deed.' This waiting was 
thus properly only a wish that another might step before me; 
for the rest, however, I knew no such third." 

Sand often prayed to God that this requisition might be 
allowed to pass from him, and that he might be left to pursue 
his ordinary duties. But in this inward warfare, the inner 
voice perpetually returned, saying — " Thou hast promised so 
much, and hast yet done nothing." The projected work stood 
thenceforth so vividly before his eyes, that his imagination 
enabled him to sketch out a drawing of the murder-scene be- 
forehand, which was found amongst some indifferent pen-and-ink 
outlines amongst his papers in Jena. Still he continued to waver, 
till the newspapers brought a report, that Kotzebue intended to 
return to Russia; and then stood forth Sand's resolution to mur- 
der the traitor, let it turn out as it would, and though he should 
himself lead the way to death for him. Besides this it was part 
of his plan to make a confession, to bring the Death-Blow to 
the knowledge of the people. His original plan was, after the 



KARL LUDWIG SAND. 89 

accomplishment of the deed, to betake himself to his weapons, 
and to make his escape if possible, so that provided he effected 
his own retreat, self-destruction formed no part of the scheme. 
While he brooded over his enterprise, he prepared the instru- 
ments of his design. He made choice, to that end, of a smaller 
and a greater dagger. The latter he called the small sword, 
and had it made in Jena after a model in wax, prepared by his 
own hand, and from his own drawing. For the carrying of 
these weapons he made a hole in the breast of his waistcoat, in 
which on account of its weight, this dagger hung ; but for the 
lesser one he had a small hook sewed into the left-arm sleeve of 
his coat, which by a small eye secured the sheath there. Before 
setting out on his expedition of death, he completed his Death- 
Blow, or Confession, prepared the fair copy, which after the 
accomplishment of the act, he purposed to stick up in some 
public place ; then the original of the same, as he called it, and 
numerous transcripts of the same. This Death-Blow was a 
document on which Sand long laboured, and for the promulga- 
tion of which, after the deed, he had taken measures. It was 
designed to be a call to the people to rise and assert their liberty. 
As this composition not only places in the clearest light the then 
overstrained state of Sand's mind, but also gives us glimpses of 
many ideas of the Burschenschaft at that period, which the 
government were afterwards obliged to hold in check, it shalli 
here find a place. 



8* 



90 THE NARRATIVE OF 



DEATH-BLOW TO AUGUST VON KOTZEBUE ! 

" ONLY IN VIRTUE, UNITY." 

" Our days demand a decision for the law which God has 
written in flaming characters in the hearts of his men. Prepare 
yourselves ! decide for life and for death ! 

" Open nightly profligacy is not the corruption which rages 
in our blood, but vice devours around him only the more hide- 
ously under the mantle of an accustomed pious politeness : false- 
hood masks itself under a thousand assumed holy forms ; and 
the condition of the people should be the blossom of so many 
sacrifices, and is the state of the old miserable laxity. 

" Half-accomplished fools, and the stunted overwise, for ever 
deride the truth, which unadorned and simple, throws itself on 
the human mind, and they cripple and distort her use in life. 
The moral strength of the Germans is split on the Babel of 
foreign affectation, and keeps itself no longer in the house-life. 
The will is wanting in us for the deed. The Fatherland fails 
the youth. Courtiers and money-service rule, instead of that 
honour-firm integrity which has resigned itself to the influence 
of time, and is become mouldy in it. 

" The virtue of the burger class bends itself servilely at the 
nod of the great, and rushes, with already gripped clutch, at the 
gold-bag. The idleness of servants devours our bones ; courage 
and hero-mind display themselves alone in paper panoply amongst 
the whole people in empty vapouring ; and since they glow not 
as pure flames in every heart, we find them not even in ourselves. 

" Deep based on equally vile sentiments in the people, stands 
the most sensual government ; and unrestrained arbitrary power 
needs no other protection than these ; — the separation of frater- 
nal hearts by the means of jealously -guarded frontiers, of the 
leading-strings of strict and public surveillance ; of cradle-songs, 



KARL LUDWIG SAND. 91 

and the sermons of sloth ; and it rests itself as upon very sufficient 
props, on the wages and the oaths of police and soldiers. Many 
amongst the great Gernnan people may stand far before me ; but 
1 also hate nothing more than the cowardice and effeminacy of 
this day. I must give an example of this. I must proclaim my- 
self against this laxity ; and I knovi^ nothing nobler to achieve 
than to strike down the arch-slave, and great advocate of this 
mercenary time, the corrupter and betrayer of my people — August 
von Koizehue ! 

" Thou, my German People, exalt thyself, to a higher moral 
worth of manhood ; of the free spirit of man, and his creative 
strength ! My German People ! thou hast no realler nor nobler 
possession ; it is thy highest good. Honour, guard this faith — 
this thy love to God. Let thy sanctuary no more be trodden 
under foot. 

" Man, be he born in the most miserable and abject condi- 
tion, is created to become an image of God. Rely on the pro- 
nnised Christian freedom. Honour and trust only the free man. 
Detest the traitors, the slaves in soul, the false teachers, who will 
not have this. Hate the dastardly poets of half-measures, the 
preachers of cowardice, the hirelings who hold thee back from 
every bold enterprise. Detest and murder all those who lift 
themselves so high in their villanous and despotic fancies that 
they forget the godlike in thee, and hold and drive thee, the mad 
multitude, in their high-wise hands, as a complex wheel. 

" Free conscience ! free speech ! Man shall solace himself 
at his own free pleasure in the divine light, of which the foun- 
tain is in him. . He shall strive after the highest discoveries, and 
shall be able, unburdened by those of others, to prove and build 
up his own convictions. But man also shall verify these opinions ; 
he shall live and act ; he shall exercise his divine creative powder 
— his will, and shall make it availing. It is for this that we have 
received the whole might of will — not that we may suffer 
others to decide what they please concerning us, as over a piece 
of a field, but that in every condition of life we may determine 
for ourselves ; and therein all virtue demonstrates itself — that we, 
in every thing which concerns the people, shall take a Hvely 



92 THE NARRATIVE OF 

interest, and so act upon our own resolves, each as we will, and 
not as another compels. 

^^ Finally, make free your wills! 

" This is the sole, purely human, this the necessary foundation 
for every human society: this must be won for the German 
Empire! Only when this sole and righteous condition is achieved, 
then only can be the discussion on further undertakings. 

" My German people ! win self-dependence, and that lofty 
mind, which already some of thy heroes have borne in them. 
This is the right, hallowed spirit of life, that thou dost that which 
the sacred Scriptures of Christendom and of antiquity teach — 
that which thy poets sing : and admirest or regardest them not 
merely as empty fables. Brother ! proudly and courageously 
shalt thou win by high endeavour, that highest and holiest object 
•which thy soul can conceive — the condition of a purified, and 
beatified manhood — 

A Christ canst thou become. 

" So learn, my People, the time in which, after long wander- 
ing, joy and unity shall come back into this life. The Reforma- 
tion, begun three hundred years ago, sought to restore the life 
of our people after the image of God. It is not yet completed ! 
for yet continue compulsion of conscience, servitude, tearing 
asunder of brothers in our country, and no one can rejoice him- 
self after a Christian and purely human form. Brothers, break 
the ancient chains of the Popedom, the chains of arbitrary rule ! 
We Germans, — one empire and one church ! Let the schism 
betwixt spiritual and secular be annihilated ! Faith, learning, 
and action, shall unite themselves into one, and bloom anew in 
the Christian enthusiasm of free German citizens. 

" The Reformation must be completed ! Brothers, abandon 
not one another in the oppressions of the times. Sluggishness 
and treason blacken history with the hand of slavery ! You 
have it before you ! 

" Up ! I show you the great day of freedom ! Up, my people, 
bethink thee ; make thyself free !" 



KARL LUDWIG SAND. 93 

The writing of Sand " To the Burschenschaft in Jena," and 
the other "To my Friends of the true German mind," were 
completed only a few days before his setting out ; and finally he 
composed also a so-called " Sentence of Death against Kotze- 
bue." He left behind, in his desk, a statement of the debts 
which his parents should pay ; and an order that his books and 
other things should be sent home. He empowered a student to 
receive all current letters and money for him. He contracted 
for his lodgings with his landlord for the ensuing half-year. To 
those who asked whither he was going, he gave the double- 
meaning answer — " Home." A letter was also found addressed 
to his parents, as follows : 

" T.0 Father, Mother, Brothers, Sisters, Br other -in-laio, leachers, 
and all Friends ! True, eternally true souls ! 

" Why still more aggravale your pain? I thought, and hesi- 
tated to write to you on this business. Truly, if you received 
the intelligence of what has occurred at once, might the bitter 
sorrow the easier and quicker pass over ; but the truth of affec- 
tion would in that case be wounded, and this great affliction can 
only be wholly conquered by our emptying the whole cup of 
wo at once, and thus keeping faithful to our friend the true, the 
eternal Father in heaven. So from the shut-up bosom, forth thou 
long, great pang of the last speech ; plain dealing can alone 
soften the agony of parting. This sheet brings to you the last 
greeting of the son and the brother ! Much and continually 
have I talked and wished, it is now time that I left dreaming, 
and the trouble of my Fatherland impels me to action. This 
is unquestionably the highest misery in this earth-life, if the 
affairs of God, through guilt, come to a dead pause in their 
lively developement ; this is for us the most overwhelming dis- 
grace, if all that beauty and good which would have been boldly 
pursued by thousands and on whose account thousands have joy- 
fully offered themselves up, as dream-shapes, without abiding 
consequence, now sinks away into dark discontent ; if the refor- 
mation of the old life, now in its half-way advance, stand petri- 



94 THE NARRATIVE OF 

fied. Our grandchildren would have to bewail this neglect. The 
commencement of the restoration of German life was made with 
spirits animated by God, within the last twenty years, and espe- 
cially in that hallowed season 1813. The paternal house is shaken 
to the foundations — forwards ! let us raise it again, fresh and beau- 
tiful, a true temple of God, as our hearts long after it. They are 
but a few who oppose themselves as a dam against the stream of 
the evolutions of the higher humanity in the German people ; why 
then do whole hosts bow themselves again under the yoke of these 
knaves 1 shall our once awaked salvation perish again 1 Many 
of the most abandoned traitors play their game without obstruc- 
tion, with us, to the complete corruption of our people. Among 
these, Kotzebue is the subtlest and most malicious ; the actual 
tool and mouthpiece of every thing base in our time, and his 
voice is exactly fitted to beguile us Germans of all bitterness 
and opposition to the most unrighteous usurpations, and to lull 
us into the old indolent slumber. He practises daily arch-treason 
against the Fatherland, and then stands there, protected by his 
hypocritical speeches, and artful flatteries, and wrapped in the 
mantle of a great political reputation, spite of his wickedness, as 
an idol for the half of Germany, which blinded by him, wil- 
lingly imbibes the poison which, for Russian pay, he prepares 
for them in his daily publications. Will not the greatest disaster 
befall us 1 Will not the history of our day be blackened with 
everlasting shame 1 He must perish ! I say continually if any 
saving influence is to arise, we must not shrink from strife and 
toil ; the true freedom of the German people then only awakes 
in us, when challenged and dared by the brave, — when the son 
of the Fatherland in the contest for the right and for the highest 
good, casts all other loves behind him, and loves death alone. 

" That this may be, who shall rush upon this pitiful fellow, 
upon this hireling traitor, Kotzebue? In anguish and bitter 
tears turned to the Almighty, have I waited a long time for the 
appearance of one who would step before me, and release me, 
not fitted for murder, would release me from my pain, and 
leave me to proceed on the pleasant path that I have chosen. 
Spite of all my prayers, no one has appeared, and each has as 



KARL LUDWIG SAND. 95 

good a right as myself to wait for another. Delay makes our 
condition continually worse and more pitiable ; and who shall 
absolve us from the shame, if Kotzebue leave German ground 
unpunished, and shall enjoy in Russia a fortune acquired by his 
treason? Who shall help and save us out of this unhappy con- 
dition, if every one, and I in my province first of all, feels not 
the call to maintain justice, and to do what ought to be done 
for German Fatherland? So then boldly forward! I will 
assault him with a heart confident in God to strike down the 
calumniator and betrayer of our brethren — the horrible traitor ! 
that he may cease from turning us from God and history, and 
plotting to deliver us into the hands of the cunningest enemy. 
Solemn duty compels me to it. Since I have discovered what 
a lofty prize our people have in the present time to wrestle for 
— and that he is the cowardly false villain that would prevent 
their destiny — it is become for me, as for every German who 
regards the well-being of the whole, a rigorous Must! May 
I direct the eyes of all active and public-spirited men, to wh'ere 
danger and falsehood threaten, and turn, in time, the fear of 
all, and the vigorous youth to the right point, that they may 
save the common Fatherland, Germany, the perpetually rent, 
the unworthy states-union, from an imminent danger. May 
I scatter terror over the base and the cowardly, and courage 
over the good ! Writing and speaking effect nothing — it is 
action alone that now creates union. May I, at least, cast a 
brand into the present indifTerence, and rouse and augment the 
flame of popular feeling, that glorious struggle for the affairs of 
God amongst mankind, which burned in us in 1813 — then 
were all my highest and holiest wishes fulfilled ! On this 
account, though startled out of all lovely dreams of coming hfe, 
still am I calm, full of trust in God ; yea, happy, since I see the 
path sketched out for me thi'ough Night and Death, by which 
I may pay back to my Fatherland all that I owe it. 

" So farewell, you dear souls ! This sudden parting falls 
heavily, and your expectations and my wishes are probably 
disappointed; yet may this have prepared us, and therefore 
now be our comfort — that what the necessity of the Fatherland 



96 THE NARRATIVE OF 

demands, is the first of all things to be desired by us, and has 
always lived in me as the most inviolable principle. You 
may hereafter say and think among yourselves — ' Yet had he 
through our sacrifices learnt to know the whole of life on this 
earth, the joy there is in this human society ; and he appeared 
to love this land, and his chosen profession heartily.' Yes, so 
was it; so did I under your affectionate guardianship. Through 
your countless sacrifices and cares for me, are my land and 
life become so thoroughly dear to me ; you caused me to be 
introduced into the world of knowledge ; I have lived in the 
active pursuits of a free spirit; I have glanced into history, and 
then turned back into my own mind in order to twine myself 
up by the tendril of the spirit firmly to the pillar of faith in the 
Eternal, and through the free inquiries of my understanding, to 
acquire a clearer perception of myself and of the greatness of 
surrounding things. I have cultivated the sciences in the usual 
course with all my power, and reached thereby the position 
and capacity to oversee the district of human knowledge, and 
have thereupon spoken out my convictions with friends and 
other persons ; have travelled the country, to learn, to know 
men and their doings. As a preacher of the gospel would 
I joyfully have spent this life, and in any possible overthrow of 
our social customs and of knowledge, by the help of God, 
would have discharged faithfully the duties of my office. 

" But should all this have withheld me from warding off 
more imminent danger from my country? Must not your 
unspeakable love for me directly spur me on to set death at 
defiance for the common good and the object of all our endea- 
vours? What numbers of the modern Greeks have already 
fallen, to liberate their people from the scourge of the Turks, 
and are yet dead without having effected any visible conse- 
quence, without any prospect of it ; and hundreds of them also 
amongst us, preparing themselves by education, suffer not their 
courage to sink, but are immediately ready again to offer their 
lives for the good of their country, and would I not die for 
mine? And will not we, to whom the salvation and the 
working out of the highest blessings are so near and dear, will 



KARL LUDWIG SAND. 97 

we do nothing to that end? And do I mistake your love, or 
would I wantonly sport with it? Believe it not. What should 
arm me for death, if not alone the love to you and the Father- 
land, which impels me thus to testify it to you. 

" Mother, thou wilt say, — Why have I brought up a son to 
maturity, whom I loved, and who loved me ; for whom I have 
striven with a thousand cares and continual anxiety; who 
through my prayers became inspired with the love of goodness, 
and from whom I fondly hoped in the last days of my weary 
pilgrimage to experience repose and filial love 1 Why forsakes 
he me now 1 Dear mother ! might not the fosterer of another 
also thus lament, if he went forth for his Fatherland? If no 
other will do that, where will the Fatherland be? But certainly 
thou complainest not thus, but thinkest on these things too justly. 
Complain not, noble woman ! Once already have I received 
thy call, and if no one now would step forward for the good 
cause, wouldst thou thyself send me forth to the contest. Still 
two brothers, and two sisters, all true and noble, have I before 
me — they remain to you — I follow my duty ! The young ones 
will step into my place, they will be true to their country — 
they also are your children. In the world have we troubles, 
but in God we are able to overcome them like Christ. Oh that 
we may enjoy his peace in full measure ! Forsaken on the 
solitary way which I tread alone, I have no dependence but 
upon the Eternal Father: in him, however, grasp I courage 
and strength to conquer the last terror, and to accomplish my 
solemn deed. I commend you to his protection and comfort. 
May he lift you to that joy which misfortunes are not able to 
disturb. Forget then the loss in the enduring joy in Him, and 
regard not my tears so much as the love which exists between 
us, and never can perish. Advance still farther for your coun- 
try, and conduct your little ones — to whom so gladly would 
I have become the guiding friend — without delay, up into the 
mighty mountains, and let them there, upon that sublime altar 
in the midst of the Fatherland, dedicate themselves and swear, 
never to rest nor to lay down the sword till the Brethren are 
united in freedom, till all Germany as one people, and with one 

9 



98 THE NARRATIVE OF 

constitution for the whole empire, great before God and mighty 
against their neighbours, is knit into one complete whole ! 

" With joyful look turned toward Thee, Eternal God, stands 
my Fatherland ! Blessed be the great host of the German 
people ready armed for the battle, who, recognising the high 
privilege to be allowed to promote the cause of a pure huma- 
nity, thy image upon earth, stands courageously resolved, and 
amongst those may I see them in whose love I shall glory till 
my end. 

" Salvation lies — highest and solely in the sword ; 
Press then the spear into the patriot heart, 
And make a way for freedom ! 

" Karl Sand." 

On the 19th of March, as already stated, he suddenly quitted 
Jena without taking any leave of the people of the house. His 
travelling dress consisted of a black German coat, with red 
cloth waistcoat, black cloth trousers, laced boots, and a black 
velvet cap with a front. Over his dress he wore on the way, 
for the most part, a blue carter's frock. Amongst other things 
was found in his pocket, Korner's " Lyre and Sword," in 
which many lines were under-drawn with single, and others 
with double scores ; as for instance in the poem " Through," — 

What wins this long delaying I 

The strong with fearless tread— 
The act alone, unstaying. 

Crushes the serpent's head. 

And his favourite quotation from the poem "Call to Arms," 
" Salvation lies," etc. as given above. So prepared, Sand left 
the university city of Jena. His journey towards Mannheim 
was by no means hurried, but extended itself to fourteen days. 
He had read in the papers that Kotzebue would not set out for 
Russia till the spring, and the anxiety respecting the conse- 
quences of the deed produced procrastination, and occasioned 
him again an unceasing self-struggle. From Erfurt he tra- 



KARL LUDWIG SAND. 99 

veiled to Frankfort with two merchants, and when they came 
to Eisenach he persuaded his two companions to take their 
dinner on the Wartburg. On this occasion .he is said to have 
asserted — " Here have sacred words been spoken, and from this 
place will yet go forth much good." He also wrote there in 
in the Stamm-book for the students, these words: — "What will 
the old nightcaps (humdrums, dreamy but inactive people) do 
for you? Depend upon yourselves, and build up to God an 
altar in your own hearts." — Then his favourite quotation from 
Korner. 

From Fi'ankfort he went on to Darmstadt ; where, as in the 
places already mentioned, he lodged with his kind friends. In 
Darmstadt he remained some days. He states that he had not 
been quite well, and had given himself up to his reflections. 
One of his friends accompanied him a part of the way thence, 
and at Sand's request, cut off his long hair, which attracted 
attention on the road. He arrived at Lorsch, and intended to 
have gone from there to Wurms; but his reluctance to his 
enterprise became so great, that he determined on the following 
day to advance at once upon the danger. He now read once 
more the Gospel of St. John, which he carried with him in 
separate sheets, and Korner's poem " Through." 

On the 23d of March he arrived in Mannheim, at half-past 
nine in the morning, and went to the Vineyard hotel. There 
he breakfasted without the host's perceiving any agitation of 
mind in him, and about eleven o'clock was conducted by a 
waiter of the inn to the house of Kotzebue. He then went 
back, on pretence of tying a handkerchief round his neck, as 
he found it too cold with open breast. Again arrived at 
Kotzebue's residence, he caused the waiter to retire, and 
announced himself through the maid who opened the door, as 
a gentleman from Mietau. Kotzebue, however, was not at 
home, and he was requested to call again at five in the evening. 
He therefore took a walk to the Rhine, and inquired where lay 
the wood of Neckerau, and its distance, and at one o'clock 
returned to the inn. He conducted himself during dinner with 



100 THE NARRATIVE OF 

great equanimity, ate moderately, and drank a choppin* of 
wine. His companions at table were two clergymen from the 
Upper Rhine country, with whom he conversed partly on 
topics of general history, and partly on the Reformation and 
Luther. He stayed with the company till towards five o'clock, 
and then said that he must yet pay a visit to Kotzebue. This 
time he met his victim. He announced himself, and was shown 
into a room on the right hand of which lay Kotzebue's study, 
separated only from it by a small cabinet, while the nursery 
and the sitting-room of the family lay on its left side. On the 
proceedings in this room Sand himself observed, — " The ser- 
vant spent some minutes in going about in the room or speak- 
ing ; he then called me in, but still continued standing in the 
doorway, and spoke in a low voice towards the interior of the 
room. I was finally admitted, and Kotzebue stepped into the 
room from the door on the left hand. I saw him appear at the 
half-open door, and then enter as the door was quite open. I 
went about six steps forward into the room and greeted him. 
He stepped somewhat nearer to the door, and I then turned 
myself towards him on the side of the entrance.f The most 
fearful thing to me was that I must dissemble. I said that I 
had a desire to call on him as I travelled through the place, 
and, after some pro and con, I added, — ' I pride myself — which 
Kotzebue probably interpreted otherwise than as I meant, — 
then drew I the dagger, and continued — ' not in thee ! Here, 
thou traitor to the Fatherland !' and with the last word I 
struck him down. 

" I named myself Henry from Mietau, since I believed that 
Kotzebue would not admit me if I announced myself a native 
German. It was much more probable under the name of a 
Courlander ; and Kotzebue actually said — ' You are from 
Mietau V 

" How many blows I gave him I cannot say: as little, which 
was the first. It was quickly done. I drew the dagger out of 

* About a pint. t Probably to prevent Kotzebue's retreat. 



KARL LUDWIG SAND. 101 

the left sleeve, where I had secured It in a sheath, and gave 
him several stabs in the left side. Kotzebue spoke not a word 
during the attack, only uttered a cry of alarm, the instant that 
he saw me rush upon him with uplifted arm. He stretched out 
his hands, and fell immediately at the entrance of the room on 
the left hand, about three steps from the same. How I should 
have wounded him in the face I know not. Probably it may 
have happened through his holding his hands and arms before 
him, and moving them about. I held the dagger so that the 
edge was above the thumb and the fist, and struck directly out, 
neither from above nor from below. Kotzebue fell together in 
a sitting posture. I then looked him in the face to see how it 
was with him. I wished to ascertain the effect of the attack, 
and a second time looked him in the face. He continually 
winked with his eyelids, so that one could now see the whites 
of his eyes, and now nothing. I therefore concluded that he 
was not dead ; but I interfered no further with him, because I 
was persuaded that enough had been done." 

Sand having completed his act, turned towards the window 
in order to regain his old standing place, but that turn produced 
a deciding influence on his fate. " I saw," said he, " in turning 
round, a little child, which during the deed had sprung into the 
room from the left-hand door. Its cry produced in me such a 
mingled feeling that I was instantly determined to recompense 
it for the injury I had done it by stabbing myself with the small 
sword. The blow struck on the left breast, and went several 
inches deep. I drew forth the steel, and the effect was an 
instant gush of blood, which I perceived as I descended the 
stairs became, with the pain, more perceptible." 

The cry of anguish of the victim under the hands of his 
murderer, brought in a few seconds thither the family and 
inmates of the house ; but the horrible spectacle must naturallyr 
so violently have affected them, that they scarcely retained a 
clear remembrance of the first moments which followed the 
discovery, According to Sand's own account, as they bore 
Kotzebue into the next room, the wild outcry and deep alarm 
sunk by degrees ; the whole room as well as the open-standing 

9* 



102 THE NARRATIVE OF 

door was left vacant, and he had time to descend the steps and 
reach the outer door. When, however, he came there, he 
found ah'eady many other persons collected by the outcry, and 
must then have despaired of his escape, and therefore sought 
to secure the publication of his " Death-Blow." His original 
intention, that of sticking it up somewhere with the small 
dagger, was prevented by his having let it fall during the 
action, and he therefore took the paper from his pocket, and 
delivered it to the servant, who was then rushing out of the 
house to call the watch, saying, " There, take that !" Then 
cried Sand with a loud voice, to the people who had run 
together, — " Live for ever, my German Fatherland, and we 
amongst the German people, who strive to advance the con- 
dition of a pure humanity !" 

He then kneeled down, and said in a low voice, — " I thank 
Thee, God, for thy victory ;" prayed, placed with both hands 
the small sword against his breast, and drove it directly and 
deliberately into it till it stood fast ; then withdrew his hands 
and fell forward on his right side. The people who hurried to 
the spot, found him lying in his blood, drew forth the dagger, 
and washed the wound with vinegar. In the mean time the 
watch and the police had arrived, and the murderer under the 
usual guard was carried on a handbarrow to the hospital. 

Kotzebue died in the arms of his daughter. It was probably 
the first blow, which, piercing the pericardium and the artery 
of the lungs, caused his speedy death. 

Sand, on the day following the murder was in a greatly 
excited state. His features changed rapidly, his eyes now 
gloomy and wildly rolling, now soft and swimming with tears. 
His wounds were cicatrized in about a fortnight, but an 
internal extravasation of blood ensuing, made the opening of 
the cavity of the chest necessary, which the then Professor 
Chelius from Heidelberg performed. Sand submitted himself 
quietly to the operation, and afterwards begged the surgeon to 
excuse him for some exclamations of pain during the operation. 
His behaviour during his whole imprisonment was praise- 
worthy. His frame of mind appeared calm and quiet, and he 



KARL LUDWIG SAND. 103 

seemed to wait his fate with resignation. Only twice, in par- 
ticular, was he seen to break out into passionate weeping ; 
once, as he was conveyed from the hospital to the House of 
Correction, and the second time, as a letter from his parents 
was read to him, in which they gave him their blessing; but 
he sought anxiously to hide these tears, as evidences of weak- 
ness. He repented his attempt at self murder, as a cowardly 
act, and followed the prescriptions of his physician with re- 
gularity. He was thus soon so far restored that the trial could 
take place. 

This was entered into with all possible gentleness; and he 
experienced generally throughout it a mild treatment. A visit 
which his mother and brother offered to make him he declined, 
on the ground of sparing to all parties the pain of such a 
parting. 

The trial for the murder went on quickly at first, but after- 
wards became more complicated, on account of the documents 
which were found amongst Sand's papers, concerning the 
Burschenschaft and such matters. These occasioned an especial 
commission to be named, which put itself in communication 
with commissions afterwards named at Weimar, Darmstadt, 
and Giessen, and subsequently with the Ministry of PoUce at 
Berlin, so far as their inquiries might have an influence or 
throw any light on Sand's act. From the report of these 
inquiries we have drawn the preceding notices of his life, and 
it may yet be permitted us to say a few words on the force of 
some actuating causes which could lead so excellent a cha- 
racter, as Sand otherwise was, to such a deed. 

Sand's early youth fell in a time when all Germany breathed 
hatred to its oppressors. From this source he drew the most 
glowing antipathy to the French, and enthusiasm for his native 
country. Traits of fanaticism, and a certain touch of religious 
enthusiasm, all must have remarked in him who have read the 
foregoing pages, and a degree of vanity which drove him to 
distinguish himself from the common herd by something 
peculiar. Thus he subscribed himself, as a genuine German, 
instead of Karl Ludwig, " Kerl Chlodowig," in the ancient 



104 THE NARRATIVE OF 

Style, and afterwards he used the signature, " German Brother 
of Fichtelberge." Then he made himself conspicuous in 
Tiibingen by a very singular dress. His desire, however, to 
serve his country remained ungratified, and he returned from 
his campaign as so many others, casting his glance forward, 
to see whether Germany, which had purchased its external 
peace through so much bloodshed, possessed internal peace and 
deserved happiness. At the same time, his proneness to mys- 
ticism was undeniable. In his speculations upon religion, 
morals, constitutions of states and laws, one finds many con- 
tradictions. Thus, he regarded the Divine laws not so much 
positive commands as monitory precepts, by which man, 
according to his conviction, can regulate his conduct. When 
he, whose favourite reading was the Bible and the writings of 
Thomas a Kempis, yet felt a certain disbelief in the revealed 
religion, it was truly a great inconsistency to desire that an 
immediate revelation from above should be made to himself. 
Thus, he says amongst other things : — " He prayed to God 
daily for knowledge and enlightenment. If he, through divine 
revelation, could learn that his act was wrong, he would 
repent it every hour ; but hitherto nothing of the kind has 
happened," *' My own conviction," said he, " is my law. I 
act right whenever I follow it. It guides me better than 
divine or human precepts." According to these principles he 
would only acknowledge laws except in so far as they seemed 
reasonable to him. Above all things displeased him, the 
division of Germany into separate states, — he would have one 
Germany and one church; but when he demanded — not for 
himself alone, but for the whole people — this freedom of 
thought and will, he was in contradiction to himself again, 
since he would, to a certain degree, force this reform upon all, 
in opposition to his conceived freedom ; nay, held it as al- 
lowable, to take out of the way, with the dagger, whoever 
placed himself as an enemy in the path of this reform ; yes, 
and called upon the people also to do the same. And this he 
did, without sufficiently understanding the laws and circum- 
stances of his Fatherland, as appears by his declaration. It is 



KARL LUDWIG SAND. 105 

to be supposed that the spirit which formerly actuated the 
Burschenschaft, had an influence upon the developement of his 
ideas; but it is false, when it is asserted that the Burschen- 
schaft was privy to his deed, or approved it. Sand had mis- 
understood some doctrines of Schelling's philosophy, and had 
fitted these misconceptions into his system, as well as many 
others which he had drawn from the lectures of his teachers, 
especially those of the historian Luden. All his teachers 
praised his restless diligence, without ascribing to him either 
particular talent or great strength of judgment. He entangled 
himself in a system of sophistry which he regarded as the 
firmest truth. When a man frequently pronounces any thing 
to be true, he comes at last to believe it so, however contrary 
it be to common sense. Thus Sand over-estimated the evil 
influence which Kotzebue exercised through his writings, 
without making himself sufficiently acquainted with these 
writings. Thus he imagined that the governments were not 
strong enough to repress this nuisance; and that the writers 
who contended against Kotzebue were powerless against this 
literary tyrant. He therefore believed himself called to take 
the enemy of truth out of the way. He communicated his 
resolution to no one, and was so convinced of the meritorious 
nature of his action — which he, moreover, justified by his 
maxim, the "end hallows the means" — that to his last moment 
he never repented of it. For the rest, he endeavoured with all 
his power, to shield others from the evil consequences that 
might have reached them from his action, and therefore, when 
for their advantage he stated many things that were not true, 
he is on that account to be judged leniently. All these circum- 
stances were well weighed by his judges, as ground of excuse 
so far as they might contribute to the mitigation of his punish- 
ment. Sand's counsel on the trial was the Licentiate Riittger. 
The final judgment of the court condemned him to death with 
the sword. This judgment of the 5th of May was confirmed 
by the Grand Duke on the 12th, and arrived at Mannheim on 
the 17th of the same month. 

At this latter period, the health of the culprit had so much 



106 THE NARRATIVE OF 

improved that, according to the official medical report, he was 
in a condition to rise from his bed with help of his attendants, 
to continue some hours up, and to take his meals sitting in his 
room. 

On the morning of the 17th of May, at half-past ten o'clock, 
the sentence of death was formally read to Sand, in the pre- 
sence of two officers of the court, whereupon, permission being 
allowed, he dictated the following protocol: — " This hour, and 
the honourable judges with the final decision, were welcome. 
He would fortify himself in the strength of his God ; since he 
had often and clearly made known his opinion, that amongst 
all mortal sorrows, none could so much afflict him as to live 
on without being able to serve the Fatherland, and the highest 
aims of humanity. He died willingly, since he could no longer 
work in love for the Idea — since he could no longer be free. 
So approached he the portals of eternity, with a glad mind, 
and with the most thorough internal conviction, which he had 
always entertained, that the true good upon earth can only 
come forth from the strife of conflicting passions, and that he 
who will work for the highest and divine, must be a leader 
and a member of a party. He cherished the hope through his 
death, to satisfy those whom he hated and who hated him ; and 
again, to content those with whom he agreed in opinion, and in 
whose love consisted his earthly happiness. Death was wel- 
come to him, since he yet felt the strength in him necessary, 
by the help of God, to enable him to die like a man." 

The 20th of May was appointed for the execution, and till 
this period the governor of the House of Correction was in- 
structed to admit all proper persons that the prisoner might 
desire to see, especially the Protestant ministers, and to comply 
with all reasonable wishes of the condemned. 

Sand displayed the same fortitude as on the publication of 
the sentence of death. He made the request that day, that it 
might be ordered that no clergyman should attend him to the 
place of execution, and gave as his reason, that the attendance 
of criminals to the place of doom, was a degradation of the 
clerical order and of religion. That religion must lie in the 



KARL LUDWIG SAND. 107 

heart, and could not, especially amid such a tumult, proceed 
from external things. As all the representatives, even of the 
clergy present, could not alter his opinions on this point, it was 
conceded, and his request allowed. 

At five o'clock of the morning of the 20th, Sand was placed 
in a low open chaise, within the court of the Bridewell, the 
door being still closed. He was attended by the superintendent 
of the prison, at his own request, that he might help to support 
him, particularly in mounting the scaffold. Two other masters 
of the House of Correction were ordered to keep near the 
carriage. Sand was clad in a dark-green great-coat, linen 
trousers, and laced boots, without any covering on his head. 
The carriage in which he sat, as well as the one following 
with the officers of justice, was surrounded by the officials of 
the House of Correction, and the squadron of cavalry ordered 
for the occasion. The train proceeded to a meadow lying a 
little without the city gate, in which the scaffold was erected, 
and which was guarded by a detachment of infantry. 

The government deemed these precautions necessary in 
order to frustrate any attempt at liberation of the prisoner on 
the part of the students. In fact, it is yet often related, that 
a great number of the Burschen rode, in the early morning, 
from Heidelberg, well provided with swords and fire-arms, 
with the intent to snatch Sand out of the hands of justice; that 
the keeping secret the day fixed for the execution, had made 
it impossible for them to obtain sufficiently early intelligence ; 
and that in consequence, though riding the whole way at the 
highest speed, they arrived too late on the spot, where, cursing 
their evil star, they discharged their pistols into the ground. 
The whole story, however, is a fable, and it is certain, that by 
the wiser, and probably the greater part of the Burschenschaft, 
even as little as by the rest of the public, was Sand's murder- 
deed approved ; and if at the moment he was generally pitied, 
and it was wished that a better fate had awaited him, yet none 
but a few political fanatics could pronounce the punishment 
unjust. 

Sand was lifted out of the carriage, and mounted the scaffold 



108 THE NARRATIVE OF 

himself, supported by the arms of the two Bridewell masters. 
Arrived upon it, he turned himself round towards the crowd, 
then threw the handkerchief, which he held in his hand, forci- 
bly down, with rolling eyes ; lifted his hand on high, as if he 
swore an oath, turned his eyes towards heaven, and then caused 
himself to be led to the chair of execution, where at his parti- 
cular request, he remained standing till the preparations of the 
execution were completed. The sentence of death was there- 
upon read with a loud voice by the actuary, and then the hands 
and body of the delinquent fast bound to the pillar. As the 
executioner bound his hands. Sand said to him in a low voice, 
" Don't bind me too fast, or it will hurt me." After his eyes 
were bound the sentence was completed, his head being severed 
from his body at one blow, and hung only by a part of ihe 
skin, which was immediately divided by the sword. 

The whole passed over with the greatest order, and with the 
deepest silence of the spectators, except that at the moment of 
the fatal blow, was heard exclamations of pity. Many students 
and other spectators rushed to the scaffold, in order to dip their 
handkerchiefs in Sand's blood, or to cut small pieces of wood 
from the scaffold as mementos. 

Sand had addressed through the whole time nothing to the 
public. A short time before his execution, he was heard alone 
to speak as to himself, — " God give me in my death much glad- 
ness — it is completed — I die in the mercy of my God !" 

He died with much fortitude and presence of mind, at half- 
past five o'clock. His corpse with the severed head was soon 
after laid in the prepared coffin, and this was immediately 
nailed up. The military then guarded the remains back to the 
House of Correction ; and on the following night at eleven 
o'clock they were buried in the cemetery of the Lutheran 
church near the House of Correction. 

Kotzebue's dwelling, and the chamber where the murder 
was committed, are yet shown in Mannheim ; and it is said that 
the spots of blood on the wall have continually reappeared in 
spite of being many times painted over. 

The scaffold, according to custom, became the perquisite of 



KARL LUDWIG SAND. 109 

the executioner, who came from Heidelberg. The stranger may- 
observe a small garden-house which was built out of this mate- 
rial, as he goes towards the Bierhalter-hof, by the way of " The 
Three Troughs," as it is called. To this house for some years, 
the Burschenschaft were accustomed to go on the anniversary 
of Sand's execution, in procession, and there with singing, and 
probably an oration, paid their respect to his memory. Even 
those who did not approve of murder as a mere poUtical reform, 
yet were glad that Kotzebue was out of the way, and pitied 
and even honoured Sand as a devoted and high-minded, though 
misguided martyr to their cause. 

If the act of Sand, perpetrated upon a man who neither in 
public nor in private life enjoyed its respect, excited in the public 
mind so much just displeasure, how much more must that have 
been the case on the villanous attack upon the life of one whom 
so many social virtues adorned. The attempt to murder Ibell, 
the President of the First Chamber of Nassau, in the following 
year, by the fanatic Loning, increased the consternation of the 
rulers and the credibility of the charge that Germany, and espe- 
cially its rising generation, was seized with a revolutionary diz- 
ziness. It appeared clear that the spirit which had formerly 
arisen from the salvation of the governments, had now taken a 
decided tendency to their destruction; and instead therefore of 
attempting to conciliate by liberal concessions, necessity com- 
manded towards it a system of vigorous repression. The con- 
gress of sovereigns assembled at Aix-la-Chapelle in 1S18, had 
already turned its attention to the critical state of feeling in 
Germany. Whilst France had become so quiet that the Con- 
gress ordered its evacuation by the army of occupation, Ger- 
many became a new subject of anxiety. It was Sand's mad 
murder-deed which first made this manifest, and produced this 
reaction on the part of the governments. In August, 1819, 
many German ministers and diplomatists met on this subject at 
Karlsbad. The excellent Karlsbad resolutions, which were 
framed at this meeting, were on the 20th of September of the 
same year, published by the Confederation of States, as the 
Confederation Resolutions. These, in order to prevent the 

10 



110 THE NARRATIVE OF 

aberrations of the youth, ordained a strict oversight over both 
teachers and learners in this respect, and that a government 
inspector extraordinary should be appointed to every university 
to observe the teachers, and to restrain the scholars within the 
bounds of discipline and order. 

The Karlsbad resolutions in reference to unions, and espe- 
cially the Burschenschaft, say: — " The long existing laws 
against both secret and unauthorized unions in the universities, 
shall be maintained in their greatest force and stringency, and 
particularly shall be the more vigorously exercised towards the 
union instituted within these few years, under the name of a 
universal Burschenschaft: as at the foundation of this union lies 
the totally inadmissible presupposition of a lasting association 
and correspondence between the different universities. The 
government inspectors shall make it a duty to exercise an espe- 
cial watchfulness in regard to this point. The governments are 
agreed upon this, that individuals who, after the publication of 
these resolutions, shall be found to have remained members of 
such secret or unauthorized unions, or shall have entered into 
such, shall not be permitted to hold any public office." Thus, the 
act of Sand, as is uniformly the case with wild and fanatical 
deeds of violence, had the very contrary effect to that which he 
purposed, and instead of serving and establishing the Burschen- 
schaft, hastened its public denouncement and suppression. In 
all the German states, the freedom of the press was, moreover, 
abolished, so that in no German state could a manuscript be 
submitted to the press without censorship. Finally, also, a cen- 
tral commission of inquiry was established in Maintz for the 
finding out of all demagogical schemes. The Prussian govern- 
ment in particular went to work with pre-eminent energy and 
vigour, and, by its persecution of many distinguished men, for- 
feited a portion of that public respect which it had acquired 
through its strenuous exertions for the liberation of Germany 
from the French, and through other popular endeavours. 

The repose of Germany during the political storms which in 
the following years shook foreign countries, at length put an end 
to the government alarms from demagogical agitations. The 



KARL LUDWIG SAND. m 

political inquisitions and persecutions ceased by degrees; the 
punishment suspended over the erring, became so much the 
milder as fewer aberrations, in consequence of the established 
regulations, arose to demand the care of the administrations. If 
therefore the impulse which the German spirit had acquired in 
the Liberation War had caused it to rush over its appropriate 
limits, the German nature yet returned speedily to its inherent 
morality and propriety; and by its unshakable loyalty to its 
hereditary princes, and relations, verified that old praise, — that 
in Germany good morals have more power than elsewhere good 
laws. 



At the breaking up of the Burschenschaft at Jena, the 26th of 
November, 1819, the following song was sung; which we there- 
fore give as one of the most celebrated. 

WE BUILDED OURSELVES. 

We builded ourselves a house, 

Stately and fair, 
And there in God confided. 

Spite tempest, storm, and care. 

We lived there so trustful, 

So friendly, so free, 
'Twas hateful to the wicked 

Such honest men to see ! 

They wronged us, they charged us 

With treason and shame, 
They strove our fair young Freedom 

To curse and to defame. 

W^hat God laid upon us 

Was misunderstood ; 
Our unity excited 

Mistrust e'en in the good. 



112 KARL LUDWIG SAND. 

They brand it as sinful — 
Tiiey cheat themselves sore — 

The form it may be broken ; 
The love Jives evermore. 

The form has been broken, 
The ruins lie low ; 

Yet what they have discovered 
Is merely smoke and show. 

Our riband is severed, 
Of black, red, and gold, 

Yet God has it permitted; 
Who can his will unfold ! 

Then let the house perish ! 

What matters its fall 1 
The soul lives yet within us. 

And God's the strength of all ! 



CHAPTER VI. 



CEREMONIAL INTRODUCTIONS TO UNIVERSITY AND BURSCHEN LIFE. 



Great need hath man of brother man 

To reach his noblest aim ; 

He moves but in the general plan. 

Fly then the wolf-bewasted strand, 
And knit life's strong and social band. 

Schiller. 



The youth of Germany has awoke out of the dreams of 
Eurschenschaft freedom ; and the sounding rush of steam- 
engines will probably not permit them easily to fall again into 
this giddy trance. The bond of an universal Eurschenschaft no 
longer embraces the whole body of German students, but the 
professors of every political as well as religious creed move 
amongst each other in manifold circles. Like ignes fatui 
flicker here and there yet, Eurschenschaft ideas, but their flame 
has seldom strength to burn, and soon expires again for want of 
fuel, which, in fact, is diligently withdrawn : still has its flame, 
ever and anon, in recent times, hoisted on the mountain tops, 
streamed up a lightening fire-pillar of Freedom ; but the rulers 
of Germany have speedily smothered it, anxiously watching lest 
the political fabric raised with so much toil, should become, 
with all its stockwork and timbers, a prey to the devourino- 
element. They have also taken care that the youth shall not, 
forgetting his original duty, fall into this labyrinth. During his 

10* 



114 CEREMONIAL INTRODUCTION 

period of study, only too often is he reminded by the ever- 
present sense of the government examination, that he is a 
citizen of a German state. Is it to be feared, that we have 
fallen into the opposite extreme; that the zeal for the political 
and literary freedom of Germans is extinguished ; and that a 
stupid and creeping slavery has taken its place? No, thank 
God, we are not yet come so far as that. A striking testimony 
of this, is the sentiment which just recently has made itself felt 
as the common spirit of Germany against France, glowing with 
the enthusiasm of former years, and to which that new Rhine 
song of Bekker — " They shall not have it !" — owes its origin. 
So far as regards academical freedom, it it is not to be denied 
that in some states an overstrained severity of government 
examinations of students begins to display a mischievous influ- 
ence.* The young man having this image of terror perpetually 
before his eyes, prosecutes his studies in a manufacturing style, 
which crushes every freer, fresher aspiration after human im- 
provement. Yet one comes back to one's self by this means, 
from that abortive condition of a false and overdriven anxiety 
for the common good ; and, on the other hand, the governments 
were wise enough to perceive, that the freedom of the universi- 
ties could not be too much circumscribed without damage to the 
pursuit of knowledge itself; for this freedom is universally recog- 
nised as the ground on which an active pursuit of science most 
flourishes. Experience has sufficiently proved this: those uni- 
versities which possess that freedom in the most perfect degree, 
having always stood the highest in academical reputation. All 
mal-practices have been properly put down ; many things have 
been necessarily held to be illegal because of their connexion 
with other things, and which yet have been tolerated, and thus 
in this middle way have the best results been arrived at. Strip 
the universities of all their privileges, and they will fall, together 

* No person in Germany can fill any office in a state, not even that of a post- 
master, or captain of police, nor follow any of the high professions, those of law, 
divinity, and physic, after he has passed his college examinations, and taken his 
degree, without having undergone another examination before a board expressly 
appointed by each state. 



TO UNIVERSITY LIFE. 115 

with the schools, to the ground, and no longer furnish so fine a 
bridge to the service of the state. Especially necessary to their 
free condition appears to be the possession of their own court of 
judicature, which has the pecuHarity of leaving a wide scope of 
discretion to the judges; since it might be very unjust to punish 
a student, were it ever so slightly, who enjoys so much more 
freedom than a citizen, precisely according to the laws of the 
schools, as a citizen who is so little permitted to step over the 
laws is punished by the laws which relate to him. Germany 
may be proud of the constitution of its High Schools, and must 
feel grateful to the governments for this protection of academi- 
cal freedom, as it is bound to be for its political constitutions, 
through which a beneficent and honourable freedom is secured. 

Much complaint has in former years been made, that the 
young people who were just come from the schools, hurried on 
by Chore hfe and their companions, become so engulfed in a 
whirlpool of dissipation, that during the first half-year, or even 
the whole year, they never perfectly recover themselves from 
this course of wild pleasure. This destructive and so much 
dreaded course, and a certain constraining influence supposed 
to proceed from the unions, and which uniting itself with the 
fascination of Renommirend, or playing off, determined Die 
JVeulinge, newlings or freshmen, to enter into such unions, were 
made grounds for putting down such unions all over Germany; 
as if Chores were necessary to such a time-killing career of dis- 
sipation. Others have insisted that the newlings must be com- 
pelled, by stronger regulations and a certain school restraint, to 
a more diligent attendance of the lectures and of their private 
studies. 

Apart from the question whether one may and can compel a 
young man of that age to unceasing application, it may be fur- 
ther asked, whether, after all, this half-year spent in the free 
enjoyment of fife must be an actual loss, and to be reckoned an; 
absolute deduction from the amount of study? By no means.. 
Truly, if study consisted in learning a mass of facts by rote, 
then might we reasonably reckon literary and scientific acquisi- 
tions by days. But let any one reflect how a youth comes from, 



116 CEREMONIAL INTRODUCTION 

school. There he had a daily task, which he completed as a 
more or less industrious day-labourer does his. He had also 
favourite occupations and favourite studies besides, but entirely 
apart, which he pursued as pleasant recreations, which had 
nothing in common with the tedious school labours. Not that 
there are no exceptions to the rule, but thus it is commonly. 
The time now approaches that he must undergo a rigorous 
Ahiturienten-examen, or final examination, before the doors of 
the High School will open to admit him; an examination which 
he puts out all his strength during the last half-year to pass, as 
he sees with transport the university years presenting themselves 
before him. Suddenly he becomes a wavering skiff, abandoned 
by its experienced pilot, to drive forth into the midst of the agi- 
tated sea of university life. His whole existence must from this 
time forward tend to one ultimate object, of which he is not 
himself yet clearly conscious; even his recreations and pleasures 
shall only serve every day to accomplish him, or to give him 
new strength for toil. His intellectual labours shall henceforth 
bear the stamp of knowledge; but the transition is so sudden, 
the space in which he has to move is so vast compared with 
the narrow bounds which have hitherto circumscribed him ! 
His sight must sharpen itself, that rapidly making himself master 
of the manifold objects that surround him, he may reduce them 
to one regular scale, and so magically diminish them as to 
inclose them in his own bosom. And to this labour, which 
appears to him gigantic, he comes exhausted by the exertions of 
the time just past, wearied out with all the old school business. 
He exerts himself to comprehend that world of novelties, but 
sinks finally overwhelmed by their oppressive greatness, and 
probably exclaims with the scholar in Faust, — 

All is confused, a stunning- pain, 

As whirled a mill-wheel in my brain. 

Despairing of science, he throws himself into the arms of 
pleasure. He drinks with full draught from the cup of joy, and 
finds himself with exultation again conscious of his youthful 



TO UNIVERSITY LIFE. II7 

strength. Pull of proud and lofty feeling, he now rushes forward 
in the new and open path, often bursting through all bounds. 
This is called the lost time. But it is not lost. If the man is not 
to be overwhelmed by the excess of external influence, if he is 
to be borne through all without loss of his independence, he 
requires in the mean time such a period of rest ; in which, from 
an undisturbed point of view, he can look back into the past ; 
can there weigh what he has so far accomplished ; can look 
forward, and acquire a clear consciousness of his future pur- 
poses, and can gather strength for the necessary enterprise. 
Thus, in the transition from the school to the university, this 
introductory laziness is a necessary crisis for the majority, in 
order to shake off the old school dust, and to awake to a new 
existence. That very dissipation must throw the youth back 
upon knowledge. He has now learnt, out of the multitude of 
things, to choose and appropriate those which befit himself, his 
character, and designs ; he has learnt to maintain his indepen- 
dence in the midst of the in-streaming outer- world ; and, finally, 
by association with so many companions who, though equally 
with himself gay of heart and enjoying life, are still happily 
prosecuting the acquisition of knowledge, he has arrived at 
higher views of life, and of individual study. He is now first 
ripe for the university. 

We have in other places spoken of the advantage which a 
young man derives from associate life with so many others. 
He who desires to rule or to exercise an influence over men, 
must first learn to live amongst many. He who studies a science 
will not perpetually confine himself to one work, though it be 
that of a most celebrated master, but will compare as many as 
possible, that amongst all their theories he may select that which 
most meets his approbation, or may create a new one for him- 
self. Of the numbers, moreover, who find themselves at a 
High School, if some lose sight of their true object, and sink in 
the slough of sensuality, yet the far greater portion pursue the 
path of knowledge with zeal, and push forward on the direct 
course, though they may occasionally diverge into the smiling 
and blooming fields that lie right and left, to gather odorous 



118 CEREMONIAL INTRODUCTION 

nosegays to bear with them on their earnest track. Every one 
of these wanderers has his individual theory of Ufe, of morals, 
of rehgion, and of every department of science and Hterature ; 
and it betrays a self-punishing conceit, when an individual 
regards his own vievi^s as so exalted that they need no compa- 
rison with those of others, and when he can learn nothing from 
this intercourse. Youth seizes upon every thing so freshly and 
with such force, and endeavours to defend it against the en- 
croachments of strangers. Shall a young man only educate 
himself under the instructions of experienced teachers ? Cer- 
tainly not. He must live amongst those who will hereafter be 
his fellow-labourers in life. But as the age exerts an undeniable 
influence on the greatest men that it produces, and even, when in 
other respects they shoot forth far beyond their time, binds them 
fast to the time with the strong bonds of prospects and preju- 
dices ; so also place operates materially on men through the 
influences which are bound upon the place. 

The ton which predominates in a High School leaves not its 
scholars untouched, or that ton could not otherwise perpetuate 
and firmly maintain itself there. But this ton is the product of 
many contingencies, and pervades every thing which comes in 
contact with it. We noticed the ton which distinguishes the 
university of Heidelberg when speaking of its advantages. This 
has always been the same; and those of Jena and Leipsic have 
been described, according to their individuality, at an earlier 
period by Zacharias. In his comic-heroic poem, as Goethe 
himself has testified, every man will read with pleasure how 
his Renommist was conquered by the love of the gallant city 
of Leipsic : — 

My song the hero sings, whom courage, sword and fighting 
Made terrible in Jena, in Leipsic quite exciting ; 
Who oft whole hosts assaulted when his wrath was hot. 
As hero out of Jena went, but in Leipsic conquered not. 

We have also a drawing of four universities of Germany, of 
about the year 1730, which was intended to indicate their peculiar 



TO UNIVERSITY LIFE. jjg 

characteristics at that period. In this drawing one sees first a 
student of Leipsic, a young gentleman very delicately and 
smartly dressed, who is turning as towards a maiden, and say- 
ing daintily,—" Dulcimene, thou hast made me quite in love with 
thee." Near him stands one from Halle — and let the reader 
call to mind that August Hermann Fronken's* death had occur- 
red about three years before that time^he is dressed in black ; 
he speaks with depressed heart, and glancing at the former 
students, sighs forth, " Him will God chastise ;" which at that 
period truly, here and there, many a so-called Waisenhausler — 
Orphan-Houser — out of an extravagant and fiery zeal, and on 
the principle of a false devotion, had continually in their mouths. 
To him succeeds a gay student of Jena in uniform, with huge 
cocked hat, and very imposing mustachios, high jack boots with 
pounded spurs. He grasps his duelling sword fiercely, and ex- 
claims wrathfully, " The thunder shall blast him that dares an 
insult." At last, and completing the group, stands a Wirtem- 
berger, with a full cup of the winking kukkuk (cuckoo) — that is 
Wirtemberg beer — with winking eyes singing, and dancing on 
one leg — ex pleno poculo. 

We have already stated in what manner a newling is received 
as an academic burger, or is matriculated. This matriculation 
in the early and ruder times was preceded by a very peculiar 
ceremony, which was called the deposition. This deposition 
during the first half of the seventeeth century extended over the 
majority of the German universities, Catholic as well as Pro- 
testant. From the description which Arnold has given in the 
Appendix to the History of the High School of Konigsberg, 
extracted from the dissertation " de Ritu Depositionis" of M. 
Sehme, we learn the following particulars. In the university 
where the deposition was customary, the newly-arrived student, 
the so-called " Branen," or Bacchant, announced himself to the 
dean of the philosophical faculty, and prayed that he might, 
through the deposition, be received amongst the number of the 
students. When the Branen or Bacchants amounted to a 

* The founder of the Orphan-House. 



120 CEREMONIAL INTRODUCTION 

certain number, the dean appointed a day in which to celebrate 
the deposition, and summoned besides the Branen, the depositor 
with his instruments, and an amanuensis. They appeared on 
the appointed day before the dean. The depositor in the first 
place put on a harlequin dress, caused the Branen to attire 
themselves in the same style, and put on them other ludicrous 
articles of costume, especially hats or caps with horns, and 
distributed amongst them the instruments with which the depo- 
sition should be executed ; coarse wooden combs, shears, augers, 
axes, hatchets, planes, saws, razors, looking-glasses, stools, and 
so forth. When now the Branen were properly equipped, the 
depositor marshalled them in rank and file, placed himself at 
their head, and conducted them to the hall where the deposition 
should be performed, and there addressed a speech to the dean 
and the spectators, who consisted of students. The depositor 
commenced the deposition by striking the Branen with a bag 
filled with sand or bran, and compelling them to scamper about 
with all manner of laughable gestures and duckings in order to 
escape the strokes of the sand-bag. He then propounded to 
them certain questions or riddles, and they who did not answer 
them quickly and well, received so many strokes with the sand- 
bag, that tears often started from their eyes. When this trial 
by question and riddle was finished, then must the Branen give 
up the instruments which they had hitherto held in their hands, 
and lie down on the ground in such a manner that their heads 
nearly touched each other. The depositor then planed their 
shoulders as they thus lay, filed their nails, pretended to bore 
through and saw off their feet, hewed every limb of their bodies 
into shape, cleaned their ears, knocked off their goats horns, and 
tore out of iheir mouth with a pair of great tongs, the satyr's 
teeth stuck in for the purpose. After the Bacchants were thus 
properly hewn, planed, unhorned, and unfanged, they were 
caused to seat themselves each on a stool with only one leg. 
The depositor put on them a dirty napkin, soaped them with 
brickdust, or with shoe-blacking, and shaved them so sharply 
with a wooden razor, that the tears often started from their 
eyes. The combing with the wooden combs was equally 



TO UNIVERSITY LIFE. 121 

rugged, with which in some places the depositor commenced, 
and, on the contrary, in others ended. Their hair, after the 
combing, was sprinkled with shavings. After all these opera- 
tions the depositor drove them out of the hall where these 
scenes had taken place with his sand-bag, took off his gro- 
tesque attire, put on his proper costume, and commanded the 
Branen to do the same. This being done the depositor recon- 
ducted them to the hall which they had just quitted, commended 
the young people in a short Latin speech to the dean, and prayed 
in their name for a certificate of the deposition. The dean 
answered in a Latin speech, declared the ground and intention 
of the custom of the deposition, and added all kinds of admo- 
nitions. Finally, the dean gave to each of them as a symbol 
of wisdom a few grains of salt to taste, scattered in sign of joy 
some drops of wine over their heads, and handed to them the 
certificate of the accomplished deposition. 

From this rude custom, which here and there expired in the 
beginning of the eighteenth century, is derived the circumstance 
that a new student, still, before he can be matriculated, must 
take out his certificate of deposition. In Altorf, the deposition 
was enacted for the last time so late as 1753, and was, in fact, 
to oblige a gentleman of high consideration who brought his son 
to enter him of the university, and wished to revive a lively 
remembrance of his own youth-time by seeing the deposition of 
his son. 

If, in past times, while manners were so rude, the teachers of 
the High Schools could practise so barbarous a custom towards 
the freshmen, it may well be supposed that the students did not 
conduct themselves towards the Branen more gently. These 
had many hardships and indignities to suffer at their hands; and, 
as was the case in many of the schools in past times, must per- 
form for them the lowest offices. Lycurgus himself could not 
create for his laws a more implicit obedience in his age, than 
the old Houses demanded from the new-comers, who are now 
no longer denominated Branen, but Foxes. As already observed, 
the name boot-fox was derived from this fact, that these fresh- 

11 



122 CEREMONIAL INTRODUCTION 

men must black the boots for their more advanced comrades, 
the old Houses of the Chores. 

The freshman, or fox, is now bound to perform many little, 
but by no means degrading or injurious services. He must con- 
duct himself discreetly, may not mix forwardly in the conversa- 
tion of the old Houses, and his purse is laid under frequent 
requisitions. Amongst the students who belong to no union, this 
is not so much the case, and is restricted principally to this, that 
the fox conducts himself not too assumingly, and now and then 
ponirt something, that is — to give this slang phrase by an Eng- 
lish one — pods down something; that is to say, he gives an 
excursion or entertainment to them, a Kneiperei, or occasion of 
social fellowship and enjoyment. This he can the better do, as 
the superior experience of the older students in all the regula- 
tions of University life, and in particular in the best laying out 
of his course of study, are of the greatest service to him. In 
the aristocracy of the Chores, this subordination is, indeed, more 
despotic. There is quickly heard, — " Silence, fox ! speak not 
when old bemossed heads are speaking !" 

We have mentioned the general services which the fox has 
to perform, but he has also to suffer at the hands of terrible old 
Houses. There comes perhaps, a bemossed head from a dis- 
tant university, in a shockingly broken down condition, some- 
thing like the student in Hauff's story, who travelled with Satan. 
Already known by his hero deeds, the moment that he arrives 
he is received with a jubilee of acclamation. *' Wiirger ! thou 
faithful old House ! cry the sons of the Muses, and rush down 
the steps into his arms. The smokers forget to lay down their 
long pipes, the billiard-players still hold their cues in their hands. 
They form a body-guard singularly armed, around the arriver." 
— Hauff's Memoirs of Satan. 

And now, scarcely has the old House made it understood that 
his trousers are not the best in the world, or that his boots are 
no longer waterproof, than it would be taken very ill indeed of 
a fox should he hesitate to supply his wants to the very best of 
his power. He must feel himself particularly honoured if he 



TO UNIVERSITY LIFE. 123 

gets back the borrowed garments in a month or two, just in 
sufficient condition to be able to make a present of them to his 
shoe-black. 

For a long time, a terrible swordsman belonged to one of the 
universities, whose mother resided in the place, and was what 
the students term a Frass philister, or eating philistine, or who 
in other words kept an eating-house for the students, as is very 
common in the university cities. Her table could promise very 
little satisfaction, even to the least delicate and artistical sto- 
machs; in fact, it required a strong dose of active exercise 
before dinner to enable its frequenters to make an attack upon 
it, and another as active after dinner to conquer the dyspeptic 
symptoms that rapidly followed her viands. Yet this table was 
always crowded. The unhappy foxes had much rather try 
their teeth on the culinary productions of the mother, than fall 
under the pitiless sword of the son. 

The same worthy was also accustomed to borrow ball-dresses, 
as he by no means approved of swelling the profits of tailors ; 
and, at the end of the season, sent them back to their right 
owner in a condition fit only at the best to be forwarded to the 
Jew. 

In earlier times, the foxes were expected by the old houses to 
write out their college notes ; and hence arose the anecdote, that 
one of the most terrible of the old houses, observing a blot, 
which the poor copyist, in utter fear, had made upon the paper, 
asked grimly, pointing to it, "Is that Douche, fox?" To dou- 
chiren, or touchiren, is equivalent in meaning to giving such an 
offence as will require a challenge. Douche is Indian ink, and 
perhaps it would be in vain to inquire how Indian ink came to 
be a synonyme for a challengeable insult ; the horrified and inno- 
cent youth, however, who understood this meaning, answered 
with precipitation, " Pardon me, it is ink." That is, not douche, 
or Indian ink, nor any thing meant for offence. 

When a fox forgets his part, he is, in their language, imme- 
diately sent to rest. Thus it happened that an old Bursche, who 
probably had two dozen college half-years on his back, at a 
Kneip, fell into a dispute with a conceited fox. The fox finally 



124 CEREMONIAL INTRODUCTION 

felt himself insulted by various expressions, and in student- 
phrase, gave him the Dummer junge — in literal meaning, stupid 
youth, but in their language a challenge. The old Bursche 
coolly replied, " Stupid I may be, but I am not young" A 
general laugh arose at this repartee, and the fox w^as so much 
pleased with it, that he instantly recalled the challenge. 

Another anecdote connected w^ith the same custom, is this. 
A fox suffered himself to become the bearer of a challenge ; an 
office which, according to Chore laws, by no means belonged 
to him, but to the Chore-Bursche. He stepped, full of self-com- 
placency on account of his important commission, but yet with 
some anxiety, into the lodging of the bemossed head, and spoke. 
" Watzman sends you a Dummer junge — a stupid youth." " Yes, 
I see him," coolly answered the challenged, glancing contemp- 
tuously over his shoulder at him, and proceeding with his writing 
at his desk without condescending to give to the dumbfounded 
fox another look. 

The student receives different names, according to the dura- 
tion of his abode at college. While he yet vegetated in the 
gymnasium he was a Frosch — a frog. In the vacation which 
lay between the time of his quitting the gymnasium and enter- 
ing the university, he chrysalized himself into a mule, and on 
entering the university, he becomes a Kameel — a Camel. This 
happy transition-state of a few weeks gone by, he comes forth 
finally, on entering a Chore, a Fox, and runs joyfully into the 
new Burschen life. During the first semester, or half-year, he is 
a gold fox, which means, that he has foxes, or rich gold in 
plenty yet ; or he is a Crass-fuchs, or fat fox, meaning that he 
yet swells or puffs himself up with gold. In the second half- 
year he becomes a Brand-fuchs, or fox with a brand, after the 
foxes of Samson. The fox year is then over, and they wash 
the eyes of the new-baked Young Bursche, since during the fox- 
year he was held to be blind, the fox not being endued with 
reason. From Young Bursche he advances next to Old 
Bursche, and then to Bemossed Head, the highest state of 
honour to which man can attain. 

As the student has given to these different periods of the Bur- 



TO UNIVERSITY LIFE. 125 

scheh life different termini technici, so he has generally created 
new words for so many new circumstances ; for the same 
cogent reasons that new Latin terms must be created for many 
modern things ; and the creations of the Bursche stand very little 
in excellence behind those of the new Latinisms. We could 
readily furnish a small lexicon of those terms, which, however, 
we may very well spare the reader, as he can easily select such 
as please him out of the number of regular student expressions 
which will occur in these pages. We will here give a few 
examples from the learned dissertation of Herr Schluck, with 
Piis sagacious and humorous explanations. 

Burse hen-Comment — The rule of life which every honorary 
Bursch must follow. To live according to the Burschen-Com- 
ment, means to be bound by the laws of neither God nor man, 
and to consider oneself as better than all other men. 

\st Proof. — Students are the sons of the Muses. The Muses 
are goddesses. Gods and goddesses are bound by no laws ; 
therefore neither are their sons. 

2d Proof. — It belongs to unlimited power to decide with the 
sword. But the students decide with the sword, therefore have 
they unlimited power. Unlimited power is one of the highest 
prerogatives. Princes possess only the highest prerogatives; 
therefore the students are princes. Princes are exalted above 
the law, so also are the students. This sentence is perhaps 
strengthened by the old song : — 

Burschen are kings, 
And the proof is here : 
They drink all their mothers' 
Pennies in beer. 

which, however, were to prove, and not easily to prove, on 
which account I doubt not that every one will perceive the force 
of the reasons I have assigned. 

They consider themselves better and greater than all other 
men. At least they are firmly persuaded of it. But a firm per- 
suasion is the same thing as conviction. He who is convinced, 

11* 



126 CEREMONIAL INTRODUCTION 

speaks the truth ; therefore the students are better and greater 
than all other men. 

To mahe a Randal, or to open a Randal, means to kick up a 
row. 

Schisser, from the French word c/iasse, one struck in flight, 
whence Schasser, or, in corrupt speech, Schisser, means a fear- 
ful and harefooted man. Hence also comes the technical 
phrase " to be in Verschiss,^' which indicates the most extreme 
condition of contempt. He who is in Verschiss, is shut out of 
all respectable society, and is compelled to go amongst ihe 
Knoten, or lowest of the low. 

Fuclis, or Fox. — This name is derived from the cunning and 
slyness of foxes, since these look about as slily and cunningly, 
and regard every one as their enemy and assailant, till they 
are rendered tame by necessity and habit. The term is not 
injurious as applied"'to' a Freshman, but is an insult to an old 
Bursche. 

Mucker, Stubensitzer, Kopf hanger, Kessel, Wicrtzel, — Saint, Stay- 
at-Home, Head-hanger, Kettle, Root. — These words are nearly 
synonymous, and indicate a man who scarcely dares to breathe, 
or to step over the door-sill ; who from anxiety, or sanctimoni- 
ousness, goes with his head hanging down, or sits as continu- 
ally over his books as a turkey-hen upon her eggs, or a kettle 
over the fire. 

PJlaster-treter, Pavement-treader ; Quark, Curds. — These are 
names of the men who are natives of the city or its vicinity. 
Pavement-treaders are those who were born on the ground and 
site of the university, and therefore, from youth up, have trodden 
the very same street-pavements. The pavement-treaders are 
also generally styled Patent-schissers, since they must conduct 
themselves in all propriety, being under the eyes of their parents; 
must go about in gloves, and frocks, or untorn coats, and not 
smoke in the streets. Curds are so called because they come 
only a few miles from the city, and to whom, therefore, their 
mothers, as their darlings, can send, if they please, a dish of 
curds to their suppers. 

Kummelturh — Is a compound of kummel and tilrk, and denotes 



TO UNIVERSITY LIFE. 127 

the class of Braggadocios and Boasters, who, at the first onset, 
rush upon the enemy with furious outcry and riot, but at the 
smallest show of real danger leap back hke Kummel, cumin- 
seed, which a person attempts to mix with melted lard. This 
name also has the same meaning as Quark, or Curds. 

Couche, Re-couche, Conire-couche. — These are French terms, 
with which silence is commanded ; but as they are terms com- 
monly used to hounds, they stand properly amongst the verbal 
injuries. 

Dummer Junge, Stupid Youth. — Is the highest and most cut- 
ting insult, since it impHes a denial of sound manly understand- 
ing and strength of capacity of him to whom it is applied. 

Schuppen oder Renne?i. — To scale, as you'd scale a fish, or 
to run — meaning that poking with the elbows, when two meet 
and neither will give way. This is a real injury. 

Dissertatio de Quomodone seu von den Burschen Comment 
edita ab renommista rerum Bursicosarum experientissimo eo- 
demque intrepido horibilique Martiali Schluck. 



If the newly arrived students are no longer subjected by their 
teachers to such uncouth customs, as this deposition was, yet 
they are by no means spared certain ceremonies by their fel- 
low-students, if they wish to lay claim to, and arrive by degrees 
at, the titles of honour connected with the different degrees of 
standing in points of seniority in university life. Yet these are 
neither so barbarous as the deposition, nor is a single student 
compelled to take part in them. They consist of some merry 
formalities, to which those who choose submit themselves, and 
which, though solemn age may smile at them, may be readily 
excused in happy and careless youth. To these belong the 
Fox-ride; the burning of the incipient Brand-Foxes; and the 
drumming in of the young Burschen, who then and there ripen, 
without further trouble, into old Burschen. 

The celebration of the initiation of the Foxes, Brand-Foxes^ 
and Young Burschen, takes place on one and the same evening, 



128 CEREMONIAL INTRODUCTION 

at a Commers appointed for the purpose. This Commers is 
always fixed for one of the special Kneip evenings, and the 
Chore to whom the Kneip-room belongs presides on the occasion. 
The candidates for initiation announce their intentions to this 
Chore; and the other Chores also assemble with it on the 
appointed day. Their place of meeting is one of the most 
spacious rooms used for such purposes, which is embellished as 
on other Commerses, and moreover also, graced with the in- 
signia of the presiding Chore. 

After the customary singing of Der Landesvater, the Land's- 
father, the assembled throng disperses itself in a circle on tables 
and chairs in order to greet the expected train. At the long 
table, at which they are accustomed to drink beer at their 
KneipSj sit others, especially those of the presiding Chore, and 
at their head the president, the drawn sword lying before him. 
All the spectators are well provided with beer and pipes, that 
they may be able to enjoy the spectacle the more agreeably. 
The doors of the hall now open, and an old Bursche, seated in 
a chair with its back before him, rides in. He is in white 
leathern breeches and jack boots, and wears also the hat of a 
postilion. He is commonly clad in a polonaise, and at his left 
side hangs the postilion's horn ; in his right hand he carries his 
sword. Sometimes, as a variety, he rides in high gala dress, in 
frock and huge shirt-collar,* and seated on an ass, carrying 
also his highly-polished and glittering sword in his hand. With 
solemn assumption of grotesquely well-acted dignity, he thus 
leads up the procession of assembled Foxes, who, also in leathern 
breeches and jack-boots, ride on chairs in the same style, after 
the Old House. The moment that the leader of the train appears, 
the whole assembly breaks out singing : — 

* The established word for shirt-collar in Germany is the very odd one of 
Vater-mOrder, literally " Father-killers ;" and they are said to have acquired this 
name from an anecdote manufactured on their first introduction, in order to ridi- 
cule their extravagant size and stiffness, as worn by buckish young men. It was 
said that so large and stifHy-starched had a young student his collar, that when 
he went home, in rushing to embrace his father, he run him through the neck 
with the point of it, and killed him on the spot. 



TO UNIVERSITY LIFE. 



129 



THE FOX RIDE. 

The Chore— What comes there from the height, 
What comes there from the height, 
What comes there from the leathern-a height, 

Si sa ! leathern-a height. 
What comes there from the height ! 

The Leader — There comes a postilion;* 
There comes a postilion; 
There comes a leathern-a postilion — 

Si, sa! postilion — 
There comes a postilion. 

The Chore — What brings the postilion 1 

What brings the postilion? etc. as above. 



Leader — 



He bringeth us a Fox ; etc. 



The Foxes sing — Good evening, gentlemen : » 
Good evening, gentlemen : 
Good evening, noble gentlemen : 
Good evening, gentlemen. 



Chore- 



What doth the Herr Papa 1 
What doth the Herr Papa? 
What doth the leathern-a Herr Papa ' 

Si, sa, Herr Papa — 
What doth the Herr Papa 1 



The Foxes — He reads in Kikero ;t 
He reads in Kikero ; 
He reads in leathern-a Kikero- 

Si, sa, Kikero — 
He reads in Kikero. 



* This word, to suit the air, must be pronounced postilyon, with a strong accent 
on the last syllable. 

t Cicero, humorously here thus pronounced, because a party among the classics 
insist that it was anciently so pronounced. 



130 



CEREMONIAL INTRODUCTION 



Chore- 



The Foxes — 
Chore — 



What doth the Frau Mamma ] 
What doth the Frau Mamma? 
What doth the leathern-a Frau Mamma 1 — 

Si, sa, Frau Mamma — 
What doth the Frau Mamma 1 

She mends the Father's hose ; etc. 

What doth the Mamsell Sceur? 
What doth the Mamsell Sceur 1 
What doth the leathern-a Mamsell Sceurl 

Si, sa, Mamsell Soeur"! 
What doth the Mamsell ScBur 1 



The Foxes — She cooks the Father's broth ; 
She cooks the Father's broth ; 
She cooks the Father's leatherri-a broth ; 

Si, sa, leathern-a broth — 
She cooks the Father's broth. 

Chore — What doth the Monsieur Frerel 

What doth the Monsieur Frere ] 
What doth the leathern-a Monsieur Frere 1- 

Si, sa, Monsieur Frere — 
What doth the Monsieur Frere 1 

The Foxes — He sits at home and oxt ;* 
He sits at home and oxt ; 
He sits at home and leathern-a oxt ; 

Si, sa, leathern-a oxt ; 
He sits at home and oxt. 

Chore — And smokes the Fox tobac 1 etc. 

The Foxes — A little, gentlemen ; 
A little, gentlemen ; 
A little, noble gentlemen — 
A little, gentlemen. 

The Chore — And doth the Fox drink beer ] etc. 

The Foxes — A little, gentlemen; etc. as above. 



* Labours hard, like an ox. 



TO UNIVERSITY LIFE. 131 

While this is singing, a pipe is handed to such of the Foxes 
as have not come provided with this smoke-machine, that every- 
one may give proof of his ability. Glasses of beer are also 
assiduously handed to the poor foxes, in order to accustom them 
to the noble juice of the barley. The foxes in the end beginning 
to feel squeamish under the accumulated powers of smoke and 
beer, sing forth in the same style the sense of their uncomfortable 
feehngs ; on which the Chore, singing, gives them good advice, 
and presently afterwards they acknowledge in another stanza 
that they feel themselves better. 

After the singing of all, or only some of the verses of this 
noble song, according to the decision of the president, he gives 
the sign that this ceremony is complete, and the new Foxes are 
perfectly initiated. 

Then instantly commences the initiation of the Brand-Foxes. 
These have in the mean time made themselves fire-proof. They 
have put on great wigs of tovi^, thoroughly saturated with water. 
The moment that they appear in the hall, they are pursued by 
the assembled Burschen, who stand with huge spills ready 
lighted in their hands. Here and there fly the poor Foxes before 
their pursuers, who chase them like so many fiends from below 
with the flaming spills, and without mercy strike them over the 
head and face wherever it be possible. When the paper is burnt 
out, the fury of the pursuers ceases also, and the Fat Foxes are 
advanced to the rank of Brand-Foxes; a dignity which, in 
another half-year, they will change for that of Young Burschen. 
Then follow the ceremonies which they will at that time 
have to pass through, and which they who are already Brand- 
Foxes now pass through. It is this. Each Brand-Fox aspiring 
to Pawh, or drum, or fight himself into the rank of Young 
Bursche, chooses an old Bursche, who while officiating on this 
occasion is styled a Pawk-Bursche, and sitting down by his side, 
awaits the proceeding of the Commers. The president deter- 
mines what song shall be sung; but he chooses one with nume- 
rous strophes. The following is the one generally sung in 
Heidelberg: — 



132 CEREMONIAL INTRODUCTION 



FREE IS THE BURSCH! 

Stosst an !* Heidelberg live thou ! Hurrah hoch ! 
The Philistine to us most kindly leans ; 
He sees in the Bursche what freedom means. 
Free is the Bursch ! 

Stosst an ! Black — red — gold,f live ye ! Hurrah, hoch ! 
He who guides the stars where on high they glow, 
'Tis he who our banner bears below. 
Free is the Bursch ! 

Stosst an ! Fatherland live thou ! Hurrah, hoch ! 
To our fathers' sacred customs be true, 
Yet think on our successors too. 
Free is the Bursch ! 

Stosst an ! Country's prince lives he ! Hurrah, hoch ! 
He hath promised to guard our ancient right ! 
Therefore for him will we live and fight. 
Free is the Bursch ! 
/ 

Stosst an ! Woman's love ! live it ! Hurrah, hoch ! 
Who honours not woman and woman's mind, 
To friend and freedom is ill inclined. 
Free is the Bursch ! 

Stosst an ! Man's strength ! live it ! Hurrah, hoch ! 
He who can neither drink, love, nor sing, 
How scorneth the Bursche so mean a thing! 
Free is the Bursch I 

* As we have no word or short phrase in English to express this German 
custom, we retain their own term, which means touch your glasses together ; 
their mode of expressing civility, as in our drinking to each other, and used by 
them on all occasions of festivity and rejoicing, as in giving a health, a vivat, or 
a toast, 

t The Chore coloujs. 



TO UNIVERSITY LIFE. 133 

Stosst an ! Free speech ! live it ! Hurrah, hoch ! 
He who knows the truth yet dare it not speak, 
Despised for ever remain the sneak. 
Free is the Bursch ! 

Stosst an ! Braverj% live it ! Hurrah, hoch ! 
He who counts the cost ere the battle hour, 
Will basely stoop to the hand of power. 
Free is the Bursch ! 

Stosst an ! Burschen-weal, live thou ! Hurrah, hoch ! 
Till the world is consumed on the judgment-day, 
Be true, ye Burschen, and sing for aye- 
Free is the Bursch ! 



After the singing of every verse they stossen an, or meet 
glasses, and whatever quantity of wine the Paiok-Bursch drinks, 
be it a half or a whole choppin, or even two choppin, the 
unhappy Brand-Fox must drink as much. Wo to him that 
falls into the hands of a thorough toper, who is inclined to run 
him hard. After the conclusion of these ceremonies the Com- 
mers is commonly held, so that many a young Bursche on 
returning home is pretty much in the condition of the Austrian 
who had been at a Bacchanal-party, and was seen, on its 
breaking up, b}^ one of his companions standing in the middle 
of the square in which his house lay, with his house-door key 
in his hand, which he was swinging from one side to another 
in an extraordinary manner. " What are you doing there ?" 
asked his friend. " Ah," said the man, " the houses are all 
running round the square, like mad, and I'm waiting till the 
right one comes. It has been here several times already, but 
somehow, it has always escaped me." 



12 



CHAPTER VII. 



THE DUEL. 



Shall I for fame and freedom stand, 
For Burschen-weal the sword lift free ? 

Quick blinks the steel in my right hand, 
A friend will stand and second me. 

Crambambuli. 



The duel is one of the few institutions of the Middle Ages 
which have come down to our times. Club-law, shaken to its 
foundation by the unceasing exertions of the German Emperors, 
must give w^ay before a pliant and cunningly calculating policy. 
We see only in the duel its still surviving sparks, and this we 
see more commonly resorted to amongst students, than amongst 
any other class, any other corporate body; and, moreover, we 
find the German students making use of it to do themselves jus- 
tice more frequently than all others, and how can we wonder 
at it ? Where a great number of young men live a long time 
together, there, ever and anon, will certainly disagreements 
arise. This we see to be the case every where, and it must the 
oftener arise amongst students, who, streaming from so many 
different places, with so many different views of things, which 
early education has implanted in each mind, many of them, 
moreover, placed high by birth, now find themselves placed as 
it were on a level, that they may enter into the necessary inter- 
course. " There is no love without strife," says an old proverb, 



THE DUEL. 135 

and accordingly this gathering together, this dividing and coa- 
lescing into separate companies, which takes place more in the 
German universities than in those of any other country, must 
inevitably lead to more frequent disputes. Moreover, the free 
developement of all physical and intellectual powers, in which 
the German students especially delight, must more easily occa- 
sion differences than is the case amongst other classes of society ; 
and therefore we find the duel even more frequent amongst them 
than amongst the military class. But if it enjoy a legal tolera- 
tion in the military class, as being considered to a certain degree 
necessary, we must admit that amongst students, where it is 
punished by the laws, it wards off worse things, and as an 
unavoidable evil could not be very easily or speedily annihilated. 
Can we blame very severely rash and impetuous youth, which, 
in the feeling of its strength fancies that it can fight out and 
achieve any thing — which has not yet learnt to accommodate 
itself to the notions of strangers and the opinions of others — if it 
betake itself to other weapons than well-considered words and 
the discreet pen '? And regarded from this point of view, the 
duel appears an evil small in comparison, and much to be pre- 
ferred to the cudgel to which the Handwerkshurschen, the jour- 
neymen artisans, addict themselves ; and from which, we sup- 
pose, they have acquired the appellation of Knoten, which is 
contemptuously given them — as people who, to settle their quar- 
rels, have recourse to a knotty stick — Knotenstock. It is very 
rare that a student degrades himself by the use of the cudgel, 
and this offence would be even more strongly punished by the 
laws, while it would be visited by the students' own court of 
honour with the Verruf, or Bann. Nor must we forget that in 
the interval between the ofience and the duel, time is aflforded 
for a more quiet consideration of the rashly-spoken words, and 
a possibility created for the withdrawal of them. But the duel 
has many times grown in such a turbulent manner that it has 
required all the force of the laws to repress the rage for combat, 
which often surpassed all conception. As the tournay of the 
Middle Ages degenerated, so has this Middle Age practice now 
lost much of its original signification ; a.nd far the greater number 



136 THE DUEL. 

of duels serve, not to terminate disputes between individuals, but 
to afford an entertainment to the Chore, which is rendered doubly 
attractive by the charm of danger. The origin of almost every 
duel would prove the truth of what we have here said. 

Little matters often conduct to great evils; and though we 
are disposed to consider the duel, as ordinarily fought, no very 
great evil, yet the causes out of which it springs are proportion- 
ably still less. Honour is tr'-ly a thing which does not admit of 
much modification, or suffer much tampering with ; and what 
will not a strong phantasy see in any thing with its micro- 
scopic vision ? The delicate and exaggerating nature of these 
qualities, reminds one in fact of the sportsman who happening 
to put on a pair of spectacles of much greater magnifying power 
than usual, suddenly fired off at a fly which passed before his 
eyes, taking it for a partridge. Many a one vexes himself like- 
wise when others are pleased. He is not in good humour, and 
their satisfaction or equanimity is an offence to him. A country 
fellow was angry with a traveller for asking him whether the 
next village was far off, when its first houses were only a few 
paces further on. He knew that ; but he did not consider that 
the stranger could not know it, and what was more, he had 
himself been thinking neither of that village nor any other, but 
only that he had just lost a lawsuit. In short, every one knows 
how it is accustomed to happen in such affairs. A son of the 
Muses is in a bad humour, and so any thing gives him occasion 
to call thee a dummen jungen ; or he sends to thee a dummen 
jiingen, and the business is settled. The conveyance of such a 
message is generally consigned to a student of some standing, 
who knows how to conduct himself in such affairs. 

We above all things counsel him who is no friend to the duel 
to banish that little word " du?nm," stupid, entirely out of his 
mouth ; for if he uses it to a student in the presence of another, 
the student, were he his best friend, must challenge the user of 
the unlucky term to fight, unless he recall the offensive expres- 
sion. Every duel drops through, where the challenger recalls 
his dummen jungen, and this he can do with unblemished honour, 
if he has convinced himself that the other did not insult him pur- 



THE DUEL. 



137 



posely. Yet no student is willing to do this frequently, lest it 
might appear that he would cut a swell with challenges, and yet 
has not really the courage to fight. Every duel must be an- 
nounced to the convention of seniors, which, if the affair goes off 
in smoke, must see that the challenge is returned as null. In 
earlier times the insulted party, that is, the person who heard the 
above opprobrious name applied to him, sent immediately to the 
offender a cartel-bearer, to inform him that after what had 
occurred, he must fight him in this or that manner. 

Come I athwart a proud Pomadenhengst,* 

Who with full sails of stale and pufFed-up pride 

Draweth me near — I tread upon his toe. 

Thereat he wonders ; — I tread on it again ; — 

Then grows he wroth : — " Hark ye," he cries, " was that 

Foot on purpose set there V — " No, it was the heel," 

" The heel — So 1 Nay, that find I very strange." 

Then add I — " Oh, do me this only favour — 

Find nothing strange — thou art a dummer junge !" 

At the present day people spare themselves this trouble, and 
also hold the time not so exact that the duel, as formerly, must 
come off within three days. As we have before observed, the 
weapons with which all student duels are fought belong to the 
Chores. An insulted party now, therefore, addresses himself to 
one of the Chores — that to which he belongs, or to which he has 
attached himself as a friend, though not a member — and prays 
the use of these weapons. His request is granted ; if he be not 
a member he pays a certain sum for their use ; and at the time 
which is agreeable to him, the Chore sends a Bursche to the 
Chore-Kneipe, where it is expected the challenger will be found, 
to announce to him the appointed day and hour of the duel. It 
is not necessary to name the place, as that is almost always the 
same, at Heidelberg being the well-known Hirsch-gasse, or, in 
plain English, Stag-lane. The students term this " to fix one." 
If this hour is convenient to the challenger, who has thus been 
fixed or determined, the Chore the same evening sends a Fox to 
the Pawk-doctor, a surgeon who regularly attends all the duels. 

* A dandy. 
12* 



138 THE DUEL. 

In what manner the duel shall be fought, the insulted party- 
need not yet make known. Up to this point we know nothing 
more than that it is to be fought with swords. The usual 
weapon amongst the students is a long two-edged sword, with 
a basket hilt, round which the colours of the Chore are wound. 
It is long and flexible, in order that the blade may throw itself 
over that of the opponent when he parries, as the duel is gene- 
rally fought by cutting and not by thrusting. This sword runs 
not to a point, but is, as it were, at the end cut square off. 
In some few universities they fight in the Paris fashion, that is, 
by lunging with the rapier, as in Wiirtzburg, Jena, and others. 
If the cause of offence or injury is heavy, they resort to the 
crooked sabre, or to pistols. In such cases, the person who 
gives the offence implying the challenge, does not style the 
insulted party a Dummen jungen, but an Infamen, an infamous 
fellow. 

The crooked sabre is a dangerous weapon of great weight, 
resembling in its curve and length the dragoon sabre, and occa- 
sions the deeper and more dangerous wounds, in that the duel- 
list having made his stroke draws it back with full strength, 
and is thus in a condition to cut through every thing which 
comes within the sweep of his curve. It requires strength to 
use it well. Student with student only can make use of the 
Schlager, or regular duelling sword. With those who are not 
students he fights with the crooked sabre, or with pistols ; with 
a miUtary man, with the straight sabre, which also is a dan- 
gerous weapon. 

By far the fewer number of duels spring out of actual insults 
or injuries, or rather we should say, the student seldom fights 
because he is insulted, but insults because he wishes to fight. 
Contests, on account of actual and genuine insults, are generally 
amongst the Camels, or those who do not belong to any Chore : 
seldom amongst the Chore members. When these, however, 
become, on any occasion, very hostile to each other, or have a 
particular desire to measure one another's skill, this is always 
fought in the Single Round, of which more anon. But that 
duels may not be wanting in which the Bursche may set his 



THE DUEL. 139 

bravery in its true light, a fine opportunity is afforded by the 
so-called Allgemeinen, or general Kneips, which are held every 
Friday. We shall farther on, come to these again. 

When the Chores are here assembled, each kneiping at its 
own table, it requires but a trifling spark to put two Chores, 
who for some time have already been in a state of electrical 
excitement, into thorough fire and flame. A Bursche comes 
over from one table to another, listens awhile quietly to what is 
here saying, but soon finds an opportunity to quiz or ridicule 
this or that ; to make himself merry over the weapons of the 
Chore, or its last Commers. Like is compared with like : the 
conversation grows continually warmer; more and more from 
the other table keep coming over, and mix themselves in the 
strife. This becomes momentarily hotter ; finally, the senior 
himself comes over, and challenges the other senior to a Cliore- 
hatze. By this is understood a regular duel between the whole 
of the two Chores, man with man. In a similar manner a 
similar great contest springs out of the quarrel which two 
individuals seek with each other out of special malice. When 
these give the challenge at a general Kneip, then follows a 
general challenging, the friends of both the parties following 
the example. 

And challenges by scores are seen, 
Because the wit is very keen. 

The following persons are necessary to a duel, besides the 
two duellists ; two seconds, two witnesses, an umpire, and the 
surgeon. The room in which the duels are fought at Heidel- 
berg, is the well-known room of an inn on the side of the 
Neckar opposite to the city, finely located in the valley of the 
Hirsch-gasse. Thither see we the Sons of the Muses often 
betaking themselves in troops, to witness a contest between two 
of their most famous swordsmen. When a duel is determined, 
the room, or hall, as it is termed, must be secured for the ap- 
pointed day. The room is regularly hired for these purposes 
by the Convention of the Chores, and its rent is defrayed out oC' 



140 THE DUEL. 

the Chore-chest, as before observed, where also it was remarked 
that the use of it and the weapons is hired for particular occa- 
sions by the Camels. The Chore to which the challenger 
belongs, or with which he has associated himself, secures the 
hall by marking the Chore sign on the floor with chalk. By 
this it acquires the right to occupy it for two duels, and must 
then, if wanted, surrender it to another Chore. 

" Solemnly," says Hauff", in the Memoirs of Satan, speaking 
of a duel, " was each individual conducted into a chamber, his 
coat taken off, and the Paukwicks, that is, the armour in which 
the duel is to be fought, put on." Each duellist is, in fact, con- 
ducted into a chamber by his witness and second, and clothed 
in the duel costume. Some trifling changes take place in this 
from time to time, but it consists, substantially, of the following 
pieces. A lesser and a greater cap, according to circumstances 
hereafter noticed, and which can be made tighter or looser, 
but which is generally worn loose, so that the blows may take 
less effect. A tall cravat, which protects the throat, and com- 
monly reaches up to the nose, but this is put on in the hall imme- 
diately before the fight commences. The binding of the arm 
is particularly important, that it may afford it the greatest 
possible protection, at the same time that it does not impede the 
action of the wrist and elbow. For this purpose is used a fine 
leather glove, bound round and secured to the wrist with a 
silken riband. This binding of the glove must be very carefully 
performed, so as to defend the sinews and arteries which 
abound here, as much as possible from injury. The hand is 
protected by the basket-hilt of the sword. The duellist takes 
the end of the riband which secures the glove in his hand until 
a similar one has been passed round the elbow. The stulj), a 
thick and well-quilted cover for the arm, made of silk, is then 
drawn on, fitted down upon the glove, and being fastened there 
by the riband which also secures the glove, and at the upper 
part of the arm by other ribands. Another bandage, called the 
axillary knot, has frequently also been brought under the 
shoulder to defend the axillary arteries from injury. The last 



THE DUEL. 141 

piece of the duel-costume consists of the paukhosen, or duel- 
trousers. It is made of leather of uncommon thickness, and 
well stuffed, and comes up so as to form a sort of cuirass, 
though without iron, such as the soldiers of Columbus used 
to wear. High as it reaches, it yet leaves a good part of 
the breast uncovered. It is laced together behind by means of 
leathern thongs. A thicker glove is fastened to the paukhosen 
behind for the left hand, or should the duellist happen to be left- 
handed, for the right, to keep it out of the way during the fight. 
Before the combatant was thus attired, he had not only his 
coat, waistcoat, neckcloth and braces taken off, but his shirt 
sleeve also slit up from the wrist to the shoulder, so as to give 
full freedom to the action of the arm, on which account a duel- 
shirt is frequently kept for the purpose, and put on before going 
to the place of contest. 

The whole of this duel-suit is calculated for a man of ordi- 
nary size, and therefore little fellows often cut a very laughable 
figure in it. They are more protected in it than larger persons, 
but at the same time are more encumbered. The second 
clothes himself in similar duel-trousers, and puts on a cap with 
a large front, or a hat, and the large leather stulp-glove covers 
his arm. The witness requires only a leathern glove on one 
hand, to enable him, if the sword of the combatant gets bent 
during the fight, to straighten it out again for him. 

When the two duellists are equipped, they are conducted into 
the hall, and whilst the remaining particulars are adjusted, they 
walk up and down, each supporting the arm which has to wield 
the sword on his witness. The seconds now measure out the 
distance, and determine it by two lines of chalk. Within these 
two lines the combatants must fight, and behind which they are 
not allowed to retreat. If either of them does this three times, 
he is dismissed from the contest with shame and insult. The 
second of the person challenged has the right to choose the 
umpire, the second of the challenger commands. Now first has 
the challenger to declare in what manner he will fight ; but till 
we have said a few explanatory words, must the antagonists 
restrain their impetuosity. 



142 THE DUEL. 

The different sorts of the duel progress, from the mildest to 
the most severe, in this order : 

1. Twelve rounds with the great cap. 
(a) With a conclusive wound. 

(6) Without a conclusive wound. 

2. Twelve rounds with the small cap. 
(a) With, etc. (6) Without, etc. 

3. Twenty-four rounds with the great cap. 
(a) With, etc. (b) Without, etc. 

4. Twenty-four rounds with the small cap. 
[a) With, etc. (6) Without, etc. 

5. One round with (a) (5) 

6. A round without cravat or bandage. 

Before we proceed to the explanation of these terms, we may 
remark, that the same rules apply to the crooked sabre, but if it 
be used, the combatants generally fight what is called the single 
round, and that duels with pistols are conducted in the different 
modes in which other people fight those duels. The students 
commonly fire at twenty paces distance; the exchange of shots 
takes place at the word of the commanding second, and in such 
a manner that the antagonists can only at the moment that the 
command reaches the final word " three !" catch sight of each 
other. One exchange of shots is generally held satisfactory. 

By a round is understood the duration of a contest till one 
has planted an unparried blow on his antagonist ; it may be on 
his person or only on his defensive paraphernalia : of such 
rounds twelve at least are made. The small cap indicates the 
ordinary cap which the student wears ; and the large one, a cap 
with a very large front or shield. The theological students fight 
in the large cap, since a scar in the face would amount to a 
termination of their professional career, of which Hauff gives 
an example, in the Memoirs of Satan, to which the reader may 
refer if his curiosity so far prompts him. 

The most customary duel is that with twenty-four rounds and 



THE DUEL. 143 

the small cap. Is it fought in the ordinary manner, that is, 
twenty-four rounds with a conclusive wound? then the duel is 
ended when a blow falls which is considered a conclusive one, 
namely, of two inches length, and deep — according to student 
phrase — to cut through the two skins. The duel of twenty-four 
rounds without conclusive wound, proceeds thus. If a conside- 
rable hit is made, the doctor must decide whether the duel can 
proceed or not; in the latter case, the fight is continued, how- 
ever, as soon as the wounded party is sufficiently restored, 
which in the twenty-four rounds with a conclusive stroke as ob- 
served, cannot happen. In either kind of duel, however, it must 
terminate with the twenty-four rounds, though neither has lost 
blood. In this case, both the antagonists remain unconquered, 
and give their hands in reconciliation. When a wound is given, 
which in its own nature or by the rules of the duel proves de- 
cisive, the second of the wounded party puts an end to the con- 
test with the words *' Remove him !" Distinguished swordsmen 
generally fight the single round. In this case they fight for a 
quarter of an hour. The umpire stands with his watch in his 
hand, marks the pauses which are made for rest when the com- 
batants become weary, and counts them off from the actual 
time of fighting. So long a time as has been consumed in 
resting, must the duel extend beyond the quarter. The sixth 
and last mode consists in fighting without coat, waistcoat, and 
cravat, and without the usual defensive costume. This, of 
course, is the very worst species of all those which have been 
enumerated. 

When all is ready for the duel, the two combatants confront 
each other. The second stands at the left side of each, holding 
in his hand the so-called Secondir-Prilgel, or second's cudgel, a 
weapon consisting of a strong rapier fixed into a basket-handle. 
The witness stands at the right side. His business is to put in 
order again the duel costume of the combatant when it becomes 
deranged, and to support his arm when it is become weary. 
The umpire stands at some little distance, between the two com- 
batants, and before him is a chair, on which he marks the end 



144 THE DUEL. 

of each round with a chalk line, forming the one side of a 
square, so that at the end of twelve rounds his i — i 

marks have completed this figure .... q— ' 

At the end of the twenty-four, this .... rP [13 — i 

The swords have been ground sharp in preparation, on the 
grindstone in the court below. The spectators have assembled 
themselves. These can only be students; and even these, if 
the combatants require it, evacuate the hall. In that case the 
cry is made " All must quit the place." 

" We planted ourselves in the ancient attitude of combat ; the 
swords were crossed ; the seconds cried ' loose !' and the swords 
whirred in the air." — Hauff's Memoirs of Satan. 

The commanding second cries — " Upon the measure." Both 
combatants step forward upon the measure ; the seconds station 
themselves at their posts ; the witnesses step back. " Bind the 
sword !" cry the seconds ; the combatants put themselves in 
attitude, crossing their weapons. The seconds become more 
earnestly observant. " Loose !" they cry, and the swords flash 
in the air. On the style of fighting we shall say what need be 
said, below, under the head of the Fencing-school. We often 
see two practised swordsmen long circling round within the 
measure, watching keenly every movement of each other's eye, 
every turn of each other's hand, while the seconds follow all 
their movements with the same short and quick steps. Sud- 
denly an unguarded part is espied, and stroke upon stroke falls 
with lightning speed. Quickly a blow is planted ; the seconds 
dart between, and with the word " Halt," strikes the swords 
aside. The moment this word is given, the combatant must 
cease to strike : if he do not this, he has made an after-stroke, 
and where this is done three times, the offender must quit the 
measure with shame and contempt. 

The second must be an expert swordsman, or he would not 
only run great danger himself, but be unable to give to his com- 
batant the necessary protection. This office, as already stated, 



THE DUEL. 145 

falls to the second Chargirter. He must exert all his skill to 
protect his combatant as much as possible, without holding his 
second-cudgel so as to prevent the blows of the antagonist 
reaching him. He must take heed that the opponent does not 
present his sword so horizontally that his combatant in rushing 
forward shall run upon its point. We have stated that it is a 
disgrace to the duellist if, before the round is ended, he goes 
backwards off the measure. This the student calls to " nip," 
or to " nip out," and says " he is nipped." A laughable cir- 
cumstance of this kind once took place in Gottingen. 

A little Jew had a quarrrel with a renowned Schlager, or 
duellist, of great stature, who had mahreated the little Hebrew. 
When they stood upon the measure, the little fellow who had 
never before entered this arena, awaited with wrathful impa- 
tience the word " loose," and made a spring in the moment, 
whereby he gave the opponent a tremendous qiiarte in the face, 
crying, " There, thou'st got something !" The tall fellow, who 
expected nothing so sudden, was horribly enraged at this inroad 
upon the honour of his swordsmanship, and so much the more 
as every one laughed heartily at the droll occurrence. Spite of 
all outcries and commands to " halt," the student pursued the 
Jew with terrible strokes, so that he, unable to maintain his 
ground, stepped continually backwards till he at length actually 
took refuge behind the stove. The seconds were seized with 
such a paroxysm of laughter at this scene, that they were unable 
sooner to run to the aid of the little Jew, and then first placed 
themselves as a wall between the stove and the enraged swords- 
man. 

When a round is ended, the seconds and the witnesses, who 
come to their aid, often contend the point, whether an after- blow 
was made or not, whether one or other of the seconds fore- 
warded, that is, exceeded his duty in protecting his protege to 
the prejudice of the opponent or not ; which last act, if often 
repeated, entitles the other second to demand that he be dis- 
missed from his post. But most frequently of all, the dispute is, 
whether the blow took or not. All these points of dispute have 
to be referred to the umpire, against whose decision there is no 

13 



146 THE DUEL. 

appeal. When the single round is fought, the seconds do not 
stand at the left side, but so that they make a cross with the 
duellers, as here that frequent springing in between thena is not 
necessary. So goes the duel forward till terminated in one of 
the aforesaid ways. In the mean time the doctor has, from the 
very commencement of the fight, had his bandages in readiness, 
his needles threaded, and water set at hand, prepared at a mo- 
ment with a skilful hand to afford assistance to the wounded. 

The duel with swords is, as may be inferred from what we 
have described, not very dangerous, and thus it proves itself, 
since from the great number of duels which annually occur, so 
few serious consequences follow. There are now students, who, 
during their career, have fought from thirty to forty, and even 
sixty times, and yet have come out of them all with a few slight 
wounds in the face. Yet tragical consequences are by no 
means wanting. Noses and eyes are sometimes lost, and even 
fatal terminations are now and then put to them.* The wounded 
are nursed with great care by their companions ; and those 
who distinguish themselves with their weapons, speedily mount 
to the head of their Chores. It is said that two brothers were 
such strong and perfect swordsmen, that they disabled a whole 
Chore, with whom they came into contention for further exer- 
cise of their weapons for the whole half-year. The duels with 
the crooked sabre, are the most frequently attended by unhappy 
results. 

The duel is distinctly prohibited by the laws. The enactments 
of the academical senate concerning it are as follows : — 

1. If any one is slain in a duel, or is deadly wounded therein, 
or so wounded that he finds himself in danger of his life ; or 
that a lasting disadvantage, through mutilation or internal in- 
jury, is occasioned him ; or if the duel has been with pistols, 
with the fleuret, or with the crooked sabre ; and even when the 
duel with pistols, with fleuret, or with the crooked sabre, has 
not been completed, but only intended, the affair can no longer 

* While translating this passage, the tidings have come across the river, that a 
student is shot dead in the wood opposite to my windovps behind the Hirsch-gasse, 
in a duel with pistols. — TV. 



THE DUEL. 147 

be regarded as a mere violation of discipline, but to be penally- 
treated, a trial constituted against the actors, and all the aiders 
and abettors, before the university magistrate, and all the mi- 
nutes and evidence to be handed over for the decision of the 
civil courts of justice. 

2. Shall the duel with sword or crooked sabre have been fol- 
lowed by none of the aforestated consequences, without making 
any further distinction between the relative position of chal- 
lenger and challenged, both parties shall, under ordinary cir- 
cumstances, suffer a punishment of from four weeks incarcera- 
tion to the enforcement of the consilium aheundi. On account 
of more serious circumstances, in especial, on account of a 
wilful seeking after contention, of gross insult, of rejection to 
offers of reconciliation, neglect of the summons of a surgeon, 
or of fighting the duel under unusually dangerous regulations, 
shall, according to the circumstances of the case, punishment of 
a higher kind be inflicted on one or both parties, as may appear 
right, even to the extent of the sharp relegation. 

In milder circumstances, and towards that party who shall 
have made sufficient offers of reconciliation, or who has been 
injured or insulted in a gross degree, the lighter penalty of 
imprisonment from eight days to four weeks may be inflicted. 

A duel is held to be perpetrated from the moment of its 
commencement. 

3. Seconds and so-called umpires may pass without punish- 
ment, or according to circumstances, may be imprisoned not 
exceeding eight days : shall the duel, however, have been 
effectuated under unusually dangerous circumstances, they shall 
be punished with greater severity, even to the consilium aheundi. 
The witnesses, spectators, cartel-bearers, or those in whose 
house the duel has been allowed to take place, or who have 
contributed towards it by other means, shall be imprisoned 
from eight to fourteen days. 

4. Those who have been guilty of exciting others to fight a 
duel, shall suffer the consilium abeundi, or in some aggravated 
cases the simple or sharper relegation. 

5. He who is aware of an appointed duel, shall make it 



148 THE DUEL. 

immediately known to the university magistrate whereupon 
those concerned in it will be, without delay, confined to their 
houses, or, if circumstances require it, be arrested. 

0. After inquiry, reconcilement of the parties is to be 
attempted; but if this cannot be effected, both parties must sign 
a declaration, with which they must be satisfied. But in both 
cases must both parties give their word of honour that they 
will fight no more during the remainder of the term of their 
academical rights of citizenship, and sign the protocol for that 
purpose presented by the magistrate of the university. Whoever 
refuses to do this shall immediately receive the consilium aheundi ; 
and whoever afterwards breaks his word of honour and again 
fights, shall be visited with the sharper relegation, also he who 
fights with him. 

7. Those students of medicine or surgery, who shall, at any 
time, undertake the bandaging for a duel, shall, after the first 
bandaging and performing of what was immediately necessary 
to the wounded, instantly give information thereof to an autho- 
rized surgeon ; and if they fail to do this, they shall, according 
to the degree of danger of the wounded, suffer a proportionate 
imprisonment; and if the case warrant it, the consilium aheundi, 
or relegation. 

8. The punishment for duels between students and persons 
of another class, shall be regulated by the principles here laid 
down, unless attended wdth contingencies of particular aggra- 
vation. 

9. The beadles who have detected duels in the course of the 
year, and he of them who through the discovery of appointed 
duels shall have contributed the most to the prevention of the 
fighting of duels, shall each, according to the evidences and 
degrees of zeal, receive a reward of forty, sixty, or eighty 
gulden,* and the academical senate, through the curator, shall 
determine the relative sum. 

10. The weapons and other things necessary to a duel, which 
shall be found upon the place chosen or appointed for a duel, 

* In English money, from about three to seven pounds. 



THE DUEL. 149 

shall be seized, made useless, and so converted, as much as 
may be, to the benefit of the university treasury. 



The beadles strive with all diligence to entitle themselves to 
the proffered reward ; but, on the other hand, the students exert 
all their ingenuity to defeat the vigilance of these Arguses. In 
their behalf numerous persons are employed, who, through 
signs, give intelligence of the approach of the beadles, or, as 
they are termed by the students. Poodles. Amongst these, at 
Heidelberg, stands prominently forth the Red Fisherman, dis- 
tinguished for his Herculean strength, and an inventive spirit 
not a whit inferior to that of Ulysses. That brown sunburnt 
countenance, whose features announce a rude bravery — that 
red hair — that solid build of limb — that mighty chest spread 
hke the breastwork of a ba.ttery, and which the wide out-lying 
shirt is too proud to conceal, and the fantastic cap — the man is, 
not a moment to be mistaken. He belongs to those creatures 
of the students which are to be found in every university city, 
and who, living by the students, are to them indispensable. So 
the Red Fisherman renders the most important services, both 
connected with the duels and otherwise. At night when the 
Lumpen-bell* sounds, he makes the round of the Kneips, and if 
he finds any of the sons of the Muses whose legs Bacchus has 
lamed, he throws one over each shoulder, like two sacks, and 
hastens with them to their lodgings. He is present at all Com- 
merses and Comitates : like a true hound he partakes of all the 
enjoyments of his lords, and grimly defends them in their diffi- 
culties; as in the villages, where it often happens at the holding 
of a Commers there, that through their exuberant pranks they 
get into skirmishes with the peasants, who will assail them in 
troops with tremendous cudgels, and are, when their blood is 
up, on such occasions, merciless antagonists, beating, treading 

* The bell which is rung at a quarter to eleven at night, at the hearing of 
which all persons are to evacuate public-houses, and betake themselves home. 

13* 



150 THE DUEL. 

on, and even stamping on the faces of those whom they have 
knocked down. The Red Fisherman, in such emergencies, is 
another Ajax, and wresting their weapons from them, lays 
prostrate hosts of Bauers before him with their own cudgels. 
On all occasions he patiently bears the wanton whims and 
insolent humours of his own lords in their barley-cornish hours. 
On the other hand, the pohce treat him in trials and inquiries 
which come before the magistrates with all possible lenity and 
forbearance, as by his courage and skill in swimming he has 
already saved the lives of six or eight persons. 

When a duel is about to take place, the Red Fisherman is 
generally posted on the Neckar-bridge, to give thence the first 
alarm signal. The moment that he perceives the beadles has- 
tening that way, he gives the sign by a handkerchief, or in some 
other way, to a servant-girl, who is stationed for that purpose 
below the Hirsch-gasse, and on receiving it, hastens in and 
gives the alarm. The combatants are hastily stripped of their 
duel dress, their own garments thrown on, the fighting appa- 
ratus thrown into some place of concealment, and all fly out by 
windows and doors, and plunge into the woods, where they 
return by a circuitous route to the city. If the surprise is too 
sudden to allow the Paickant, or duellist, to divest himself of 
his inconvenient costume he runs, in full battle-habit, to conceal 
himself as he is, in the garret of the house, or in a neighbouring 
corn-field. The little garden-house which stands just above, 
called by them Tusculum, has afforded many a one shelter; 
indeed, at one time, two students regularly hired it and lived in 
it, so that when the surprised combatants ran in thither, they 
became only visiters, stepped in to see their friends. The 
police, however, soon prohibited their abode there. 

The beadle has little chance of approach by the open high- 
way ; but he endeavours to cross the Neckar by a boat, at a 
distant spot, and so by hidden footways over the hills, to come 
sUly upon their rendezvous; or he lounges as a Bauer or a 
sportsman through the neighbouring vineyards; or he comes 
riding up as a gen-d'arme. 



THE DUEL. 151 

But come the beadle however he will, 

The wit of the student's too much for him still. 

He may think himself certain to pounce on his game, 

But he's still more certain to fail in his aim. 



One of the most common punishments of the duel is confine- 
ment in the university prison ; and a few words on the permitted 
fencing usages may here precede a short account of that. There 
is one regular fencing-master appointed in the university, who 
gives his instructions at his own house. Every Chore has here 
its place of practice ; that is, a large room in the house of the 
fencing-master is hired by each Chore at a fixed hour of the 
day, where they meet together and practise fencing, the fencing- 
master often being present. Others who wish to accomplish 
themselves in the art of fence, join themselves to these Chore 
members, but it is forbidden to lunge, lest under the pretence 
of fencing the duel may be concealed. Of the German mode 
of fencing there is truly as little to say as if we should describe 
to any one how he should waltz. The customary weapon, and 
whoever has wielded it knows well the meaning of high and 
low, guard, quart, terz, high and low quart, prim, second, and 
so forth. The German rapier fight is not so ornamental as the 
French lunging with the fleuret. It requires greater strength, 
and the movements are only in the wrist; for the rest, it may 
be recommended to any one as a strengthening exercise. The 
rapier is similar to the Schlager, but, of course, blunt ; a thick 
leather stulp covers the arm, and a mask the face. The German 
student, it is well known, arrives at a great dexterity in this 
practice, as he distinguishes himself in all bodily exercises of 
strength and dexterity, and as the Burschenschaft members did 
in the more useful gymnastic schools, where they often per- 
formed astonishing exploits. The gymnastic schools, as the 
rendezvous of the Burschenschaft, are unhappily cried down, 
and are thereby fallen completely into neglect. 

It is an inspiriting sight to see able swordsmen contending 
with powerful strokes in the fencing-school; and sometimes all 
seem mad together, when a couple of the great dogs of the 



152 THE DUEL. 

students having found their way in, each rushes to assist his 
master with yells and merciless bites. All in the room retreat 
to tables and chairs, and the wrath of the hounds is then turned 
against each other. They take the place of strife instead of 
their masters, who, in their individual ornature, in all corners of 
the room stand guarding themselves with their swords. 

The Career is the prison of the students, and consists of three 
or four rooms in the house of the Chief Beadle, immediately 
under the roof. It is secured with iron grating, and contains 
as furniture only a bed, a small table, and a wooden chair. 
These small chambers have received different names from the 
students, as the Solitude, Bellevue, Recreation, and the Hole. 
The last is the dark place into which the nightly disturbers are 
thrust, that they may here, undisturbed and undisturbing exer- 
cise their fancies till morning. They are under the care of a 
beadle, who supplies the necessities of the prisoner. The captive 
may not for the first few days quit his durance on any account. 
Afterwards he may attend his college lectures, or he goes about 
during the time that he ought to attend them, taking care to 
avoid meeting the officers of police. He must also return to 
the prison at night. During the days that he is in close confine- 
ment, he can entertain himself with reading ; he plays or drinks, 
smokes and chats with his acquaintance, who are allowed to 
see him by an order from the Amtmann. His food he procures 
from one of the regular eating-houses, by means of his boot- 
fox. If all visits to him are prohibited, in accordance with the 
severity of his sentence, and if he be not inclined to study, he 
lies in bed and consoles himself with his pipe the greater part 
of the day, which he finds far more agreeable than sitting in 
that hard and uncomfortable chair. Thus we see, that this 
punishment is not excessively cruel, though it has the property 
of promoting considerably the transparency of the purse ; since 
this agreeable lodging must be paid for, and the services of the 
beadle during the day are nothing near so responsive to love as 
to money, and for which, at all events, he must pay a specified 
sum. In some universities, as in Giessen, the incarceration is 
more rigorous. There, all visits and books are denied. The 



THE DUEL. 153 

prisoner is not allowed to leave the prison ; and even the bed- 
stead is carried out in the morning, so that nothing is left to the 
poor wretch the whole day but to pace his small apartment, or 
to sit on that hard chair, and pour out his complaints to the four 
bare walls. Certainly the stranger will not select a place where 
such barbarous sentiments are retained, and refinement of mind 
has made so little progress, for the scene of his university life, 
but will rather turn his steps towards the more humane and 
polished Ruperto-Carolo,* or some similar university. 

* The university of Heidelberg. 



CHAPTER VIIL 



CHARACTERS CONNECTING THEMSELVES WITH STUDENT LIFE. 



The appearance of the Red Fisherman in our last chapter 
has brought before our mind's eye some other of the creatures 
of the students, to whom we cannot better devote a brief chap- 
ter than in the present place. These are the Binsen-Bube, the 
Hofrath Diehl, and the Frau Gottliebin. And we would have 
the renowned Red Fisherman to understand, that we mean not 
in bringing these personages into connexion with his name to 
bring his dignity into question, nor for a moment to place in 
comparison with him the two former of these individuals, over 
whose heads he looks down from the clouds of fame. The 
Binsen-Bube, or as he is also called, the Blumen-Bube, that is, 
the Rush-boy, or the Flower-boy, will figure in another part of 
the volume, and therefore must first stand foi-th the Herr Ho- 
frath Diehl, or in pure English, the Privy Counsellor Diehl, an 
individual on whom many foreigners must have stumbled in 
Heidelberg. 

This individual has served for some thirty years to amuse the 
rackety young men by his original nonsense ; and we lament to 
be obliged to say that the students of a former time were not 
wholly guiltless of originating the condition in which he now 
finds himself. He is a melancholy example of a student scathed 
in his career ; and who has, from one unfortunate hour, sunk 
continually deeper and deeper into the depths of misery and 



CHARACTERS OF STUDENT LIFE. I55 

insignificance. What part he played as a student we are not 
able precisely to state ; but this must be certain, that he never 
could have been enlightened by the sun of reason as men on the 
average are, and now it is with him an everlasting eclipse. Ac- 
cording to the opinions of some, he must unluckily have been 
walking under a great umbrella when reason was rained down 
from heaven. He thus early became a plaything in the hands 
of men who were base enough to abuse his simplicity. He 
received a forged letter, containing the intelligence that he was 
appointed a privy counsellor of the Hesse Darmstadt court, and 
the scoundrels who deceived him advised him to use some pecu- 
liar kind of pomatum, which should give to his head a look of 
official dignity. The upshot of this infamous business was that 
he lost nearly all his hair by this application, and was brought 
back from Darmstadt, whither he had gone to take possession 
of his office, to the university a crazed man. From the conse- 
quences of this lamentable history he has never recovered. His 
mind, weak before, has since remained hopelessly confused. 
He has continued to occupy a small chamber, where he employs 
himself busily in scheming and maturing plans for the improve- 
ment of the world ; for the maintenance of the European balance 
of power ; for the better pursuit of philosophy, and for bringing 
it into a better connexion and alliance with other branches of 
education; and in the discovery of an elixir of longevity. The 
results of his profound meditations are laid down in vast masses 
of manuscripts, which, alas ! like the Journey from Stolpe to 
Danzig,* have never been able to find a publisher. Yet they 
are by no means useless to their author, if they are unappre- 
ciated by the world. He employs them as mattrasses and pil- 
lows for his bed ; and he busies himself with scattering great 
quantities of water out of his window in order to dissipate those 
heavy vapours which have prevented the booksellers from per- 
ceiving what would be so greatly to their advantage. During 
the day, this singular man traverses all the streets, and goes 

* The everlasting subject of regret to the merchant in Kotzebue's comedy 
Pagen-Streiche. 



156 CHARACTERS CONNECTED 

round to all the Beer-kneips. With short and measured steps 
he walks about clad in an old coat which he owes to the kind- 
ness of some student. Now it is a polonaise, now a velvet frock, 
and anon it is a mackintosh. He wears, like the student, a little 
cap, from below which hangs his scanty and white hair. His 
countenance has a singular expression of mixed pride and 
humility, of friendliness and melancholy ; and in his right hand 
he carries a light stick, in such a manner as if every moment 
he was about to raise it in the act of demonstrating some of his 
cosmopolitan propositions. This moment he picks up from the 
street some worthless fragment, and even a bit of wood for his 
fire ; the next instant he whistles his little dog, a faithful compa- 
nion to which he is most fondly attached ; and now he is greet- 
ing this person and the other, with the words " How goes it, 
my friend, to-day, with thee?" for he stands on the Smollis with 
every body, that is, he puts himself on the familiar footing of 
thee and thou ; to another, " Good-day, my dear son." 

In the Kneips he seeks to attract attention by an harangue, 
or by his remarks on the affairs of the day. He then waits 
with quietness till the landlord, in requital for the drawing to- 
gether of hearers, sets before him a small refreshment, or till a 
compassionate guest treats him to a choppin of beer, or pre- 
sents him with a few kreutzers. Formerly he had a stall in the 
half-yearly fair, where he sold partly pins made by himself, and 
partly other wares, as knives and scissors, and such like, at double 
the price at which the man at the next stall, who furnished him 
with them, did. That our readers may have some idea of the 
character and quality of the worthy privy counsellor's compo- 
sitions, of which he says he has at least eighteen thousand 
sheets by him, we give a specimen wdiich was written expressly 
for us, and which the reader may or may not, just as he is dis- 
posed, try his teeth upon. We have, however, no doubt but 
that those sagacious and penetrating people who have put in the 
mouth of Jean Paul Richter so many things which he never 
thought of, will also do our Hofrath the same most obliging 
kindness, and wish right heartily that he may have the good 
fortune to find at least one such commentator. 



WITH STUDENT LIFE. I57 

A Treatise, composed at Heidelberg the 29th of October, 
1840; and styled, a " Little Memorial and Gift of Friendship, 
from Friend von Diehl, Grand-ducal Privy Counsellor of Baden, 
and State Counsellor of the Mysteries of Heidelberg, to such of 
his friends as love the so-called Strictly Right, out of which 
every thing reasonable by degrees continually developes itself." 

Now an author, who sees himself busy at his writing-table upon 
a composition, has to give to them that, as an inoculation of 
every thing, whatever it may be, which he has in his spirit con- 
secrated to all worthiness, and so that it shall not be difficult to 
hear and understand, since it contains many incredible things. 
As he never in his time was so far advanced that he could learn 
to understand so much as he was striving aftei*, as he was so 
poor, so very poor, therefore he was obliged to thrust back 
every thing of that kind to the period when finite things shall 
no longer be finite. It is to be desired that his inquiries should 
be continued either by himself, or by others of the student class 
who go forth as teachers, accompanied by the necessary aca- 
demical freedom, that is without all enactments and restraint. 
Let the pen have its course, as his thoughts for the most part 
have unfolded themselves, the spirit and the eye running through 
the right hand, and his ideas thus walking forth upon paper. 
Spirit, eye, and hand ! hands pressed together ! then draws the 
eye every thing so through it, as the sucking babe draws milk, 
that it must burst forth in some shape, as that milk in the babe, 
if obstructed in its natural current, will spring through in erup- 
tions. But the Princes should take care of this, who have 
power, to advance the wise, so that they may be able to live, 
that they may be safe from the claws of an old wife's company, 
and may not be thrown about as feathers in the world, called 
also the great city street, — that in the University cities those of 
the grade of witches may not wash away all that belongs to the 
liberty of the duel in general. Especially shines this out of the 
Bible, out of the Testament — where the Dutch prescribe the 
gospels as well as the epistles, like physic, that they may preach 
upon it as the Bauers to their servants, when they have cleared 

14 



158 CHARACTERS CONNECTED 

out their stables, " You must make a bee-hive ; set about it, 
make it quickly with a dung-fork and the handle of a flail." 
Preaching such nonsense do the Dutch divines wring themselves 
out as an old woman wrings out a wet cloth, yielding only that 
which men have no occasion for, and without which they would 
be more of men than with it. Thus money and the necessaries 
of life are continually decreased, or rather are rolled out thinly 
till they overspread and cover up the spirit of man, as a sur- 
geon spreads out his plaster to the extent of two and twenty 
yards. 

Two and twenty years have I laboured incessantly to defeat 
these drifts of the old wives, for the good of all states, but the 
more I labour the more enemies spring up. Still must I of ne- 
cessity stand up for the princes, since that dwells in me which 
man styles duty. During the half of that two and twenty years, 
I have written treatises for the guidance of students of jurispru- 
dence and criminal law, adapted to all cases and occasions, 
after which, however, no man inquires. Students diverge con- 
tinually farther and farther from my views of law, being influ- 
enced by the city clergy, who warn them against them through 
means of the post. I live in privacy with the great Director of 
the whole world ; yet have the malicious city old wife gossips 
calumniated me. And this led them to the base action, for many 
a base deed is brought about through medicaments. The most 
grievous evils not only arise but continue — I will point out only 
a few of them. To injure a man in his eyesight irreparably, 
— to damage his hearing, — to cause his hair to fall off, — to 
induce epilepsy, — to make his very spirit stand still ! Instead 
of that office of important study to which I believe myself ad- 
vanced, thus came I to sit there where inexpressible pains are 
given, which make every thing in man, that is of the nature of 
man, cry out. But the hardest of all was to become a maniac ! 
To keep off this, I wrote from nine to ten thousand sheets, 
drawn from life itself, to throw out and express the very kernel 
of knowledge, which must yet be printed. But I am so poor, 
that I am always on the point of starvation ; for many years I 
have belted myself more tightly in. I lodge at Widow Ueber- 



WITH STUDENT LIFE. 



159 



lin's on the Freisenberg, who could, if she pleased, from the 
Great Frederick of Prussia, turn herself into the Grand Turk 
himself. She was not, however, aware of this ; therefore, I 
assumed the crown of human misery, and wrote this year six 
hundred and fifteen hefts (each about six sheets of paper). 
Think only of the diligence in my dwelling ! 

It were well if a learned man in Baden would set himself 
upon a winter's work, in writing out my manuscripts, in trans- 
lating them, and sending them to the press, and to make an 
extract for each faculty, of such matter as relates to them. I 
am so poor that I am quite unable to defray the cost of such 
printing, 

I am the Hfe — I have rent the great secret out of the bosom 
of Nature. I am the sun, the love, the goodness, a secret that 
the common class of men have to thank the learned for. 
From year to year I have continually learned more thoroughly 
the contents of the surface of the earth. I am, however, only 
allowed to divulge certain glimpses of this knowledge, and I 
show it to true friends, wearing knowledge at my side, as the 
soldier his sabre. 

The true Friend Frederick von Diehl. 



Poor Hofrath von Diehl ! A more melancholy and affecting 
history than his is not readily to be conceived ; and amid the 
ravelled skein of his ideas, the memory of his grievous wrongs 
stands clear and imperishable. It would be difficult to refer to 
language more vividly descriptiv^e of the surprise and anguish, 
and despair, to which a human spirit may be subjected by the 
base wantonness of others, than that which breaks forth amid 
the strange wanderings of this document of his. The injured 
eyesight and hearing — the hair burnt from his head as by 
lightning — the shock of astonishment when he finds himself, 
instead of advanced to the post of honour which had been 
delusively promised him, thrust " there where inexpressible 
pains are inflicted; pains which make every thing in man 



160 CHARACTERS CONNECTED 

which is of the nature of man cry out;" a prey also to 
epilepsy, and above all to madness. Poor fellow ! yet amid 
the smarting sense of his irreparable injuries he retains all his 
own humanity of feeling. He cherishes no hatred against 
mankind. His heart is sound ; that is not injured, though his 
brain is ; and he employs himself through the long years of 
his mental eclipse, with the perpetual hope and endeavour to 
benefit, not only his friends, his town, his countrymen, but all 
mankind. It is well that the gallant student in the spring-days 
of his career, while he runs on the green and gay path of 
Burschen-life, is kind to him. That he makes daily amends to 
him, for the crimes and follies of those in a day gone by. 
May the brave youths of Ruperto-Carolo long cherish this 
kind feeling to the unfortunate Hofrath ! may they smoothen 
the few years of his earthly course to him ! While he lives in 
the dreams of literary fame and of boundless philanthropy, may 
they blunt the tooth of that poverty of which he so painfully 
complains ; and, finally, may the brave hands of the sons of 
the Muses, one day lay that weak but worthily-meaning head, 
on which some of their precursors heaped wantonly such a 
fearful calamity, peacefully and honourably at rest. 



But amongst those who derive principally from the students 
their support, we must not forget the respectable, discreet, and 
amiable woman, who is to be found stationed every day at the 
corner of the university platz. Here the worthy Frau Gott- 
liebin displays her treasures for sale, — cherries, grapes, plums, 
whatever fruit in fact the season affords, and of the finest 
quality, separated into small baskets-full. Every change of the 
season marks itself upon her stall by the apparition of some 
new luxury, and at Easter it is gay with many-coloured 
Easter-eggs for the children. In Germany, it is said, " sixty 
kreutzers make also a gulden," and the wisdom of this proverb 
has proved itself on this good woman. She not only possesses 
a small house of her own, but her son has studied at the 



WITH STUDENT LIFE. 161 

university, taken his degree, and is already advanced to the 
dignity of a curate in the church ; yes, the worthy old dame 
yet hopes, and that soon, to be able to congratulate him as 
pastor of a parish. Her daughter is married to a surgeon in 
the Upper Rhineland, and when from time to time the stand of 
the old lady is vacant, in front of the well-known Pfalz-hotel, 
nobody is afraid that it is because she is ill, or because the 
weather is too severe for her ; for summer and winter, in the 
hottest sunshine and the bitterest frost, there she is at her post, 
— no, there is a new grandchild expected, and Frau Gottliebin 
has disappeared to pay a visit to her daughter. She has 
numbered many of the present teachers of the university 
amongst her customers, and takes a lively interest in the 
members of the institution. She is also very free with well- 
meaning advice when the course of life of any of the sons of 
the Muses is not to her satisfaction. The stranger who has 
not tasted of her wares we may well advise to cast an ob- 
servant eye on her stall as he passes it, and can promise him, 
if he chooses from it, a luxurious refreshment. 



14* 



CHAPTER IX. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF THE STUDENT. 

The reader has hitherto only seen the students in their 
public life. Their private life, in comparison with their public 
and out-of-door proceedings, withdraws itself so much from 
general observation, that it is not likely that it should so soon, 
or so forcibly, strike the general eye, as that does by its bold 
and prominent features. Yet we are confident that we can 
present to the reader many an interesting picture if he will 
allow himself to accompany us into the lodging of one of our 
heroes. " In God's name," Mrs. Trollope will exclaim, " what 
are you going to do ? Are you mad, that you would seek 
the bear in his den ?' We can, however, only beseech the 
foreigner not to be deterred by the often wild exterior and 
carriage of the student, from paying a visit to one or another 
of them. Without further hesitation or precaution he may 
follow us, and make himself certain of a friendly reception, 
especially from the South German. Should any one yet be 
incredulous, let him only inquire of Mr. Traveller, who has now 
resided half a year in Heidelberg, and made his first acquain- 
tance with the student-world in this manner. One of my 
friends told me that he had introduced him to the student 
Freisleben. " In his smoking-room ?" asked I, in astonish- 
ment. " Yes ; why not 1 The English," said he, " have 
strong nerves, and I wished to fortify his against all weaker 



PRIVATE LIFE OF THE STUDENT. 163 

impressions, in fact, to make him smoke-proof; an experiment 
which I hope even the learned Mrs. Carleton herself would not 
disapprove of." 

" Well, and how did he like it ?" inquired I farther. 
" We had scarcely made our escape out of the snow-storm 
of a wild December day into the house, when the Englishman 
remarked that the whole abode had a peculiar look, which he 
could not for his life describe or particularize, but which had a 
strong smack of the student. I had purposely brought him 
into a genuine student kneip-house, and in the entrance, that 
white painted board on the wall, on which, with their respective 
numbers, hung the keys of the different rooms, caught his eye. 
The narrow passage and steps by which we made our way 
through the house appeared strange to him. We at length 
reached the right door ; I opened it ; the Englishman looked 
eagerly in ; but imagine his amazement as he saw nothing but 
a monstrous cloud of smoke. ' Where are we V he demanded. 
An instant yell thundered through the smoke towards us — a 
whip whistled in the air, and a tremendous voice cried, ' Down ! 
down !' ' We shall get no good here,' said the Englander. 
' Courage, courage,' said I, and we pressed forward into the 
midst of this smoke-vomiting volcano. In the meantime a 
portion of the reek had made its escape by the open door ; it 
became tolerably light, and we saw the great spaniel, who had 
withdrawn himself howling into his basket, and friend Freis- 
leben standing with his riding-whip in his hand." 

" That confounded dog of mine — the uncourteous rascal,"' 
said he, " does not understand how he ought to receive a 
stranger. Mr. Traveller, it rejoices me to see you in my abode. 
My friend has already made me acquainted with your name.'" 
He requested us to be seated, and offered us each a pipe, which 
he himself had well supplied with tobacco, in the kindest 
manner. 

'* But, my God," whispered the new guest to me, " every- 
thing looks here pretty much as with other well-bred people; 
All so human. Ah! I am very sorry that I am so undeceived."' 
Yet a closer observation conducted the sufficiently quick eye of 



164 PRIVATE LIFE OF 

the Englishman to the various peculiarities there, and served to 
enrich his sketch-book with sundry notices, which he has been 
obliging enough to communicate to us. 

The student knows how to live here. He has fitted up his 
room very commodiously. The sleeping-room certainly is some- 
what small ; often, rather an alcove, in which, besides his bed, 
his wardrobe, his dressing-table, and a large trunk, there is little 
to be seen. But one might almost pronounce his sitting-room 
comfortable, were it not distinguished by rather too much of a 
lyrical disorder. Books, pipes, rapiers, clothes, coffee, and 
writing apparatus, are somewhat too little assorted; and the 
stove, standing in the room itself — but Germans in this respect 
know no better. Yet one must admit that those little machines, 
which look like an adiaphory, between a Roman urn and a 
German beer-jug, and which one might take by the end of the 
long pipe and carry with one along the streets, are very well 
adapted to the needs of the student, who commonly only wiles 
away an hour at home, and then hastens again to the college, 
since they quickly warm the room, and as quickly let it cool 
again. They are readily made hot, so that you may easily 
when at full heat light your pipe at them. 

There are not wanting tables, chairs, a commode, a writing- 
table and book-shelves, and a sofa that is pretty well used. Our 
host, at first sight looked, to my fancy, somewhat Turkish, as 
at our morning visit he sat enjoying his pipe and coffee, in a 
coloured plaid morning-gown and showy slippers. But the 
legs — no, they were not crossed in Turkish fashion, but stretched 
out at will from the sofa in true English style, and seemed to 
feel themselves very much at home in the room. He had a 
handkerchief thrown loosely round his neck, and the small, 
round, and embroidered cap sat not inelegantly on his head. 
These caps, as I learned in course of conversation, are termed 
cerevis, or beer-caps. What especially struck me in the apart- 
ment, were the various decorations which adorned the walls in 
gay rows, and the signification of which our host politely 
explained to me. Upon one wall was displayed a long line of 
profiles, all under glass, and in small gilt frames. A coloured 



THE STUDENT. 165 

Chore-band falling from above, wound about them, and com- 
prehended them, as it were, in one great family. " These," 
said he, " are in memory of the friends who have contributed to 
embellish my six semesters at the university:" and I learned that 
it was the practice, especially of those who belonged to the same 
Chore, mutually to honour each other with those little likenesses. 

" We have here," said he, " in Heidelberg, the Herr Miinich, 
who executes these things in first-rate style, and derives alm-ost 
a livelihood alone from this branch of business. It is the same 
in other places. I have already passed some time in Jena, 
Berlin, and Bonn, and have enjoyed the friendship of many a 
brave Bursche. There, you see the views of many a city 
through which I have travelled. They will to the latest hour 
yield me delightful recollections." These, with the well-executed 
portraits of many professors, filled a second wall. Amongst 
them proudly displayed themselves several printed duplicates of 
the doctoral diplomas of his Iriends. 

" And whose likeness is this which hangs in the midst ?" I 
asked. " That," he replied, " is the portrait of our famous Pawk- 
doctor, which cannot be wanting in any kneip." 

On the third wall 1 beheld pipes of all forms and sizes, from 
the meerschaum to the clay pipe; and my polite host promised 
me at the next opportunity, to give me a lecture, as he expressed 
it, on these articles of furniture. My eye was now caught by 
the garniture which I beheld about the looking-glass. It was 
hung round with ribands of various colours, and above it 
appeared the remains of garlands. As T noticed them my host 
said — " See, those are flowers out of the mourning garlands 
which deck many a departed friend who sleeps in the cool 
earth; which we carefully preserve." 

"And the ribands with the many inscriptions and the dates'?" 
I asked. "Those," said he, "are my Chore-brothers; and the 
date indicates the foundation-day of our Verhin clung." 

On the fourth wall were to be seen a Schlager with the 
Chore-colours; a chore-cap and a guitar, with several coloured 
rosettes. There stood also a little table, and upon it apparatus 
for drinking and smoking; a large Deckel-glass with a lid, 



166 PRIVATE LIFE OF 

having upon it an engraved inscription, " Traumansdorf to his 
Freisleben, 18th July, 1838 ;" an elegant little casket wdth 
tobacco, a spill-vase, a study lamp, a vessel denominated the 
Pope, to receive the ashes of the tobacco on emptying the pipe, 
and an incombustible spill, or Fidebus, a new discovery, and 
certainly one of the most useful of the nineteenth century. This 
consists of a small strong coloured glass tube, which is partly 
filled with spirits of wine, and closed with a cork; through 
which a wire is thrust, and to the bottom end of which wire is 
secured a small knob of wood wrapped in cotton wool. This 
wire has a ring at the top, by which it is pulled out, and the 
knob ignited at the lamp when it is wished to light a pipe — a 
convenient piece of machinery, and also forming an ornament 
to the table. 

As I continued to observe these mysteries, my host took up 
the guitar, and touching the strings, sung, — 

He wlio can neither drink, love, nor sing, 
How scorneth the Bursche so mean a thing ! 

" I can guess, and therefore ask not," I observed, " what your 
rosettes mean." " It was a delightful August ball," said he to 
his friend significantly. " And this glass, too, I see, is the gift 
of a friend," I added. " Certainly, you are quite to be envied." 
" That is nothing extraordinary," he remarked; " it is the custom 
amongst students to compliment each other with, or to dedicate 
to each other, as we express it, such things. The inscriptions 
which you see on yon pipe-heads, on those ribands, on this glass, 
we term dedications. They bear the name of the giver, and 
the day which is the most distinguished in our lives through 
some remarkable event, on which day such a gift is generally 
given. Let us add to the so-called gifts the silhouettes and the 
sword, and you have altogether what the student is accustomed 
to dedicate to his fellow-student. But be seated. The coffee 
will be cold, and my pipe is actually gone out. If you will have 
a morning-gown, I have another, and I am always sorry to see 
any one squeezed up in an uncomfortable schnippel (student 



THE STUDENT. 



167 



term for a dress coat). Would you think that a German had 
so much regard to comfort ? Ha ! ha ! Much more than you 
imagine. Fancy yourself before an English fireplace (opening 
the door of the stove) ; since, without that, I know you don't 
feel yourself comfortable; and that we also are aware of the 
pleasantness of a fireplace, is shown by our frequently having 
the stove open into the room. And do you know that we have 
an equivalent for your word comfort, of which you are so proud?" 

" If you will tell me what it is," I answered, " I will believe 
it ; but I have hunted through every dictionary for it in vain, 
since your words behaglich, gemiithlich, bequem, don't express 
the actual thing." 

" Pomadig," cried he, laughing ; '* that's the lordly word ! 
but it is only one of our termini tecknici, and is not yet sanc- 
tioned by Adelung." 

" I will swear from this day forward," I exclaimed, " that 
the students are pomadig" " Have pomade," said he, correct- 
ing me, " for we are no pomadenhengste. When I am laid up 
some day," he continued, " I will make you a vocabulary of 
our terms with their synonymes, and shall felicitate myself 
thereby on contributing to a more perfect knowledge of the 
German language in England. You will take care to publish 
it?" " Assure yourself of that," I replied. 

"But what has the Boot-fox brought?" asked my host of his 
friend, who during this time had been in conversation with a 
queer-looking fellow. " A duplicate diploma from Schmidt," 
he replied. " What has the old boy then bitten of the sour 
apple at last !" " Yes ! he has worked like a dragon — he has 
geoxed tremendously during the last year, and has now taken 
the highest degree." 

Freisleben sings: — 

Therefore lets he fall a tear, 

And thinks — ah! but youth was dear! 

And gives me an examen summa cum laude. 

" I am very curious," said I, " to know who the man was that 
walked in without knocking, and whom you styled Boot-fox. 



168 PRIVATE LIFE OF 

He looked like a servant that, instead of livery, a man has 
stuck into a student's coat ; and what a cap he had on ! And 
besides that, he had such a curious voice that one could have 
thought it belonged to some other person, or that somebody 
else was in the room when he spoke." 

" Ha ! ha ! I will explain that to you. This odd fellow be- 
longs to a class of ministering spirits who live entirely by the 
students. We dub them Boot-foxes, because they clean our 
boots and clothes. They are bound to run also on our com- 
missions, and must figure in processions and public pageants. 
As the poor devil must turn out very early in the mornings, his 
voice snaps and cracks huskily from the effects of the raw air, 
like that of a youth in the transition-state from a hobbledehoy to 
a man, till by degrees it balances itself in one key. For the 
rest, he is a respectable father of a family, and his wife is gene- 
rally a washerwoman for the students." 

" All that is easy enough to understand," I replied. " Why 
do you call him a boot-fox V 

" Ah, I forgot to observe, that in earlier times the foxes, 
who, as you know are students just come from the schools, 
and whom we yet play many a joke upon, were frequently 
obliged, very improperly, to perform those offices which our 
Famulus now discharges, and thence this name dates itself." 

" I have made myself acquainted," said I, " with a new 
species of foxes. The other day I heard a professor spoken of 
as a school-fox." 

" Yes, yes ; this name is given contemptuously to one of 
those teachers who, without penetrating into the spirit of know- 
ledge, turns into his scholars, by hogsheads, the unfermented 
deluge of material, and reckons a man learned if he has only 
piled up in his hollow skull a chaos of things merely gathered 
by rote. God be praised, these scarecrows become scarcer 
from day to day. Yet, alas ! there lies in the German word 
Gelehrter, the idea of one who has been taught without our 
being able to say whether he has actually learned. The French 
say not les enseignes but les savants ; and the English not the 
taught ones, but the learnecV^ 



THE STUDENT. Igg 

" But," said I, " your Gehhrter, of the present day, we may 
also certainly style the learned." 

" By all means ; and, thank God, but with few exceptions." 

" Knowest thou," asked friend Eckhardt, " whence comes 
the term school-fox ?' 

" Not clearly ?" 

" Then hear ! M. Just Ludwig Brismann, born at Triptis, 
in Voiglande, who had been schoolmaster in Hof, Zwickau, 
and Naumburg, and who died Professor of Greek in Jena, on 
the 19th of August, 1585, was accustomed to wear a great- 
coat lined with fox-skin. This sort of clothing, which he had 
been used to wear before he came to live at Jena, he still con- 
tinued to sport there. The students in Jena looked upon this 
raiment, which was then quite out of date and very singular, 
as so odd that they made game of it, and those of them who 
had previously known him as schoolmaster, dubbed him 
School-fox. Thence sprung the name of school-foxery, which 
comprehends every thing pedantic, contemptible, and degrad- 
ing." 

" And may I ask," I added, " what you pay this precious 
Bursche for his important services'? I ask, since I think of 
staying here this winter, and would therefore willingly en- 
lighten myself on all matters of housekeeping." 

•' He receives a gulden (twenty-pence English) monthly." 

" A servant for a pound a-year ! Was the like ever heard !" 

" You must recollect," said Freisleben, " that we are for 
the rest of the day attended by the house-besom," the student 
phrase for housemaid, who also in Berlin is styled schlavin, or 
she-slave." 

" Hast thou heard the anecdote," interrupted Eckhardt, " of 
Schmidt's answer to our boot-fox the other morning ?" 

" No ; let us hear it." 

" The Famulus came very early to Schmidt's bedside, and 
said, very laconically — ' the Geheimrath Forst is dead to-night. 
Have you any other commands V * Yes,' answered Schmidt, 
still heavy with sleep, * I command the Geheimrath Langsam 

15 



170 PRIVATE LIFE OF 

(a very rich and miserly old gentleman) to die too, and to 
make me his heir.' " 

" Famously answered !" said Freisleben ; " but, Mr. Travel- 
ler, you vi^ould know more of our household regulations. Our 
House-Philistine must provide for all our domestic necessaries, 
bringing in the account monthly, which, however, we are not 
obliged so very exactly to pay. They furnish us with wood, 
lights, etc. Breakfast we commonly brew for ourselves, in its 
proper machine. For the lodging, consisting of two rooms, 
we pay perhaps from thirty to forty gulden, and the house- 
besom receives besides, each semester, two kronen thaler — nine 
shiUings, English." 

" Upon my w^ord, you live right reasonably in Heidelberg." 

" Not quite so much so as you imagine. If you take into 
the account the expense of the college lectures, you cannot 
well, at least pleasantly, live under 800 or 1000 gulden. There 
are universities where you may live much cheaper, but few 
where you can live so agreeably as here. You know how 
Lichtenberg has divided the sciences. So I might here divide 
the universities into such as where a man may live cheaply and 
well, to which class Munich and Vienna particularly belong ; 
where he may live cheap and badly, as in many of the smaller 
universities, particularly Halle, which affords only nutriment 
for the hungerers after knowledge ; where he may live well 
and somewhat expensively, as at Heidelberg ; and finally, 
where he may live dearly and ill, of which the great Berlin is 
an example. I speak here only of the material life, apart from 
which, every university has, its peculiarities in many respects; 
in short, has its own ton. When you have learnt thoroughly 
to understand Heidelberg, and then afterwards visit other 
German universities, what a variety will you not find." 

" I would gladly learn," said I, " the differences of these 
various universities which you say are so characteristic. It is 
a very interesting subject." 

" But a long one," said my friend, " which we must reserve 
for another occasion. But," turning to Freisleben, he added, 



THE STUDENT. 171 

"I forgot to tell you something which the Boot-fox has com- 
municated." 

" What is it ?" asked Freisleben. 

" The Widow Mutch begs that she may be allowed to speak 
with thee." 

" And what wants she V 

" O, she creeps humbly to the cross, and prays earnestly that 
we will again take our meals there." 

" Well, if she behaves herself, we will see what the S. C. can 
do." 

" That," said I, " if I remember right, is the woman whom 
you said had been put into verruf, or under the bann." 

" The same." 

" And are all the students, then, accustomed to take their 
dinners there ?' 

" O, no. Part of them at the Gasthouses (inns) ; part here and 
there, with private people, who keep a table for us, and even 
send us, if required, our meals up into our chambers. About 
thirty of us took our dinners at this aforesaid widow's, and 
paid each twenty kreutzers the day (not quite sev^n-pence). 
But towards the conclusion of the last semester, it was no 
longer to be endured ! simply and eternally cow-beef — and at 
last it grew still worse. Thereupon it was absolutely neces- 
sary to give Madame, the Philistine, a lecture." 

" Excuse me," I interrupted, " but I must first beg for a solu- 
tion of the term Philistine, which you so often use." 

" We comprehend all who are not students under the name 
of Philistines. In a more restricted sense, we understand by 
PhiUstines, inhabitants of the city, and distinguish them from 
the Handwerks-Burschen, by giving to the latter the title of 
Knoten ; and the shopkeepers' young men that of Schwiinge, 
or Ladenschwiinge, that is, Pendulums, or Shop-pendulums. 
Others write the word Knoten, Gnoten, and say that the artisans 
and journeymen were so called from Genossen, Handwerhs- 
Genossen, comrades or artisan-comrades, thence corrupted to 
Genotten, and finally to Gnoten. We have already stated that 
Gnoten was supposed to be derived from their fighting with 



172 PRIVATE LIFE OF 

Knoten-stocken, or knotty sticks. Thus, as in most cases of 
philological derivation, a fine dispute might be raised ; it would 
be an interesting subject, and the auther might be rewarded 
for his pains by the impressions of some dozen bludgeons on 
his back. But, not to lose sight of the object of your inquiry 
— our domestic arrangements — I here remark that the Philistine 
in whose house we lodge, is styled house-philistine, and his 
wife, the Philose. The student who is quartered with us in 
the same house is our House-Bursche ; and he who shares 
with us our apartments, is to us a Stuben-Bursche, or Room- 
Fellow." 

" I thank you," I added. " I have certainly put your com- 
mentatorial patience to a severe trial." 

" One speaks of oneself," he replied, " generally pretty will- 
ingly. We have that feeling in common with all mortals." 

" But," I interposed, " it seems to me that you enjoy your 
comfortable room very httle, spite of all its comforts, if you 
neither dine nor take your tea there of an evening." 

"Tea!" he exclaimed, "tea! yes that is a right good beve- 
rage, but for daily use a little too sentimental. Look you — our 
course of life is this : — In the morning we pursue our studies 
over a cup of coffee, and a pipe of tobacco ; then we go to the 
classes. About twelve o'clock we dine ; then to the coffee- 
house ; and how much we study after that, or how we other- 
wise employ ourselves, you will presently see. But in the 
evening, we resort to the Kneip, and drink no tea, but beer ; 
and to the Kneip we now cordially invite you. 

" But don't think we despise what may be called your national 
beverage ; for that also, comes a time. When in the long 
evenings we sit behind our books, and the anticipation of the 
examination stands like a spectre at the door, and bars it to 
our egress, then, praised be tea ! and its black brother, coffee ; 
it is then they who must cheer us, when the spirit of life 
threatens to faint, quiver, and expire. But excuse me, I must 
now unto the college, which I cannot to-day very well schw'dn- 
zen. So fare ye well !" 
And thus we parted. 



THE STUDENT. 173 

N. B. — The expression Ein Kolleg schwanzen — to tail a lec- 
ture — means, to put off its attendance. The term is derived 
from an earlier meaning of the word schwanzen, for which 
the term durck-hrennen, to burn through, is now used, and is 
equivalent to the Enghsh phrase, "to give leg-bail to your 
creditors." In the persiflage on the Burschen-comment, entitled 
" Dissertatio de Quomodone, etc.,'" by Martial Schluck, from 
which we have before quoted, it is said, " an honourable Bursche 
has the right not to pay his debts ; that is, he may schwanzen 
and squiscion himself, make a squis in his shoes, — meaning 
that he may sacrifice his tail like a fox, who will rather lose 
his tail than his life; and thus will the student rather leave 
behind him his trunk and cloak-bag, than wait to be clapped 
into prison. 

When a student attends a lecture which ought to be paid for, 
but does not pay for it, he is said to " hospitiren ;" and he is 
allowed twice or three times to hospitiren. If, however, he 
does this for a whole semester, in order to devote the price of 
the lecture to some other object, the students call this " to shoot 
a lecture." The description of this term, is also thus explained 
by Schluck. "The student has the right to seize upon other 
people's property, that is, to shoot, to prefer, to lay the charge 
upon another. This is a new mode of putting oneself into pos- 
session of something ; that is, to commit a theft of a life-and- 
soulless thing, and call it only a half-theft. Shooting distin- 
guishes itself essentially from stealing. First, by the student 
privately conveying it away at once ; and secondly, by giving 
the owner of the property notice of what he had done, after 
it is done. This mode of taking possession is not so much 
according to our customs as those of the Lacedasmonians, 
which brought no shame to any one by the statutes of Lycur- 
gus, but rather honour and fame, to him who unobserved and. 
in a clever style carried off any thing." 

The principal objects of conveyance, are pipes, sticks, spurs,, 
chore-tassels for the embeUishment of pipes, riding-whips, and 
money to the amount of a douhel What is more than that 
must be merely taken in loan, if it be there to take. 

15* 



174 PRIVATE LIFE OF 

Friend Freisleben has, in this chapter, given us some notifi- 
cations of the manner in which he amuses himself in his hours 
of relaxation. Yet we must hope that these are not all the 
fountains of enjoyment, that are flowing for his refreshment, 
when he finds himself exhausted with such arduous battles in 
the fieldof science. Our care indeed, is unnecessary, since the 
inventive head of the student has, in all times, least of all ne- 
glected this portion of his life. 

But before we speak of other diversions, which our hero, 
partly in his own and partly in other Kneips enjoys, or without, 
in the free air, we must devote a few lines to that faithful com- 
panion, his dog. Some will, perhaps say, " What ! is it not 
enough that we have to do with the wild student, must we also 
encounter his unmannerly hound ?" But good reader, recol- 
lect yourself of the words of Wagner in Faust: 

E'en the wise man, howe'er profound, 

Loves, when well trained, the generous hound, — 

And well deserveth he thy favour too, 

The student's scholar, apt and nobly true. 

It is true, that a monstrous deal has already been said of 
the dog ; but by no one has he been more graphically described 
than by the immortal Linnaeus. He says, amongst other things, 
" He is the most faithful of all creatures ; dwells with man ; 
fawns on his returning lord ; bears not in his memory the 
strokes he inflicts upon him ; runs before him on his journey ; 
looks back at a cross-way, and seeks obediently that which is 
lost ; holds watch by night ; announces the approach of any 
one ; and guards the property." 

How much do we desire the eloquence of Demosthenes, that 
we might pronounce a fitting panegyric on the dog, already 
made illustrious by so many pens. We can, however, only 
sketch the character and manners of the student's dog with 
simple colours, nevertheless we hope to do the dog-family some 
service, and to amuse the reader with some new anecdotes. 
Various as are the young people which are blown together, as 
it were, by the winds out of every climate into a University 
city, as various are the dogs which the spectator will see fol- 
lowing at their heels. They are seldom brought with them from 



THE STUDENT. I75 

home ; but the fancy which the student has for the beast, has 
created a class of men, who make a trade in dogs a distinct 
branch of business. These people also, for a moderate hono- 
rarium, superintend the toilet of this creature, which care is 
particularly demanded by the luxuriant growth of hair of the 
shock. This dog, sometimes, when he comes new washed and 
shorn out of their hands, in the loss of his monthly crop of hair, 
scarcely knows himself again. 

If one reflects too, that every individual student, out of the 
multitude of dogs, selects that one which seems to assort itself 
most completely with his pleasure and humour, one sees pro- 
bably therein the ground of the observation which we once 
heard made by an intelligent English lady, who asserted that 
there was always visible a great likeness between the dog and 
his master. We can only corroborate the justice of this remark, 
and it must strike every one, that the dog continually picks up 
first one and then another of the peculiarities of his master. 

He who desires to take a general glance at the different races 
of dogs which inhabit our city, I counsel him to attend the 
annual dog-muster. This is held in an appointed place on an 
appointed day, whereto all the dogs of the city, both those of 
the students and the citizens, must be brought. These all pass, 
in succession, under the inspection of a beast doctor, and such 
as neither through disease nor old age fall under a sentence of 
death, are redeemed by the payment of a certain tax, and have 
a tin label hung on their necks, which they wear for a certain 
time. I add here, in passing, a refutation of those who assert 
that the Germans are ungallant, in the fact that the ladies of the 
canine species are charged only a gulden each for their redemp- 
tion, while the gentlemen of that race are mercilessly mulcted 
to the extent of a gulden and a half. 

Great and small, tall and short, thick and thin, one or many 
coloured, all meet here together. On the one side, you see the 
heavy house-dog, and the butcher's dog, how humbly they 
follow their masters ; the multitude of yafting turnspits, prized 
as true watchers ; on the other hand you descry a line of boot- 
foxes, who have conducted hither the dogs of the students. 



176 PRIVATE LIFE OF 

Hither come hastening with throngs and with pride, 
Lots of proud fellows from every side. 

Reineke der Fuchs, by Goethe. 

There is the poodle with his thick, round head, with the 
stumpy nose and hanging ears; he is propped on his short, stout 
leg, and his knowing eye bUnks forth from amongst the crisp 
woolly hair. He permits himself good-humouredly to be adorned 
with his new order. Grimly steps forth at the call, the colossal 
bull-dog, with black, thick, split nose, and slavering chops ; but 
over him towers the English mastiff, in hairy coat of one uni- 
form hue. The hunting dog, in a place where all worthy exer- 
cise of his powers is denied him, has stretched himself out 
calmly, supporting his strong head with its long drooping ears, 
on his vigorous foot. The slim greyhound, constantly trembling, 
has cowered down in a corner. Here and there you discover 
a fretful thick-bodied pug, with his upthrown snub nose, which 
the popular speech styles a saddle-nose. There is the bandy- 
legged Dachs too, with his deep sweeping ears, dark colour, and 
eyes full of intelligence. 

The dog of the university leads a wholly peculiar life, not 
unlike that of his master, since he accompanies him every where. 
The saloon and the College hall only have closed their doors 
against him. Hence it is said — 

If at home thou would 'st me find, 
Pray thee leave thy dog behind. 

During the time that the student spends in these places, his 
dog is confined to his chamber. Here he fills up many hours 
with his dolorous lamentations, or at the window watches with 
envious impatience the passing of his brethren along the street, 
and challenges them with savage yells. Whether he avails 
himself of the books of his master to advance himself in science, 
we will not venture to say ; yet we have ourselves seen them fly 
through the window of their abodes that were not at a great 
height from the ground, and seeking their masters in the College 
hall, there, as very attentive Hospitanters, stay out the remain- 



THE STUDENT. 177 

der of the lecture. One of my friends had a white poodle, who 
was accustomed regulariy to accompany him to the indifferently 
attended lectures of a certain professor, where he sat quietly on 
the bench by his side, and looked solemnly into the note-book of 
his master. One day the dog was absent, when the extremely 
short-sighted professor, in opening his lecture, remarked, " Gen- 
tlemen, it would be well if you all wore coats of one colour ; 
and were they dark ones they would be not so much observed 
by me, but it struck me immediately that the gentleman in the 
white coat was absent to-day!" The great aptness of this crea- 
ture to be taught, often furnishes the students with much enter- 
tainment. He readily learns to carry his master's stick and 
portfolio to the College hall, whence on his command, he returns 
quietly to the house. He is the best of chamber attendants, 
bringing in the morning his master's slippers and pipe. If he 
returns home at night rather inspirited by Bacchus, he accom- 
panies him as a safe conductor, often bearing things which he 
has unwittingly dropt, after him. 

A dog at one of the universities was well known as an excel- 
lent guide. He led his master home every evening ; if he turned 
into a wrong street, he seized him by the coat, and pulled him 
back ; if he fell down, he barked loudly till he rose again ; and 
when they arrived at the house, the sagacious animal knew 
very well how to ring the bell. 

They are also made use of in many a prank or piece of wag- 
gery. Thus it is said, that once in Leipsic, the students accus- 
tomed their dogs to the most frequent Christian names of the 
ladies of that city, and so soon as they came readily at that un- 
usual call, the ungallant sons of the Muses allowed themselves 
the unpardonable joke of shouting aloud those names in the 
public walks, so that it is said, the fair sex in surprise quitted 
the field. 

In one of the university cities, two dogs also furnished this 
spectacle. An order had been issued, that, to avoid any serious 
accidents from them, no students' dogs should appear in public 
except led in a band. Presently was seen a student with two 
dogs in cords. The one was a little pug scarcely two spans 



178 PRIVATE LIFE OF 

high, which was led in a rope about as thick as a man's arm, 
whilst the other, a huge and monstrous creature of the kind 
which the students call Doggen, apparently half mastiff, half 
bull-dog, stalked near it, led by a piece of twine. 

We still see these creatures made co-workers in many a frolic. 
At the dinner table, in the public walk, in the fencing-school, 
and in the evening at the Kneip, every where must the dog 
attend his master. He must eat with him in the same house; 
the master, indeed, in the chamber, the dog in the kitchen ; for 
which repast, however, is allowed on the dog's behalf two 
kreutzers a-day. Neither are combats wanting between them, 
whereby they may the more resemble their masters, and to 
which the masters, in fact, conduct them. In these dog-duels 
it goes often much worse than in those of their lords, for they 
seize each other so furiously that it is often difficult to separate 
them. 

" The dog," says Linnceus, " remembers not with resentment 
the blows of his master." The student's dog is a striking ex- 
ample of the truth of this remark. How often, when the 
Bursche returns hom.e from a drinking company, must this 
faithful servant do penance for the wild humours of the evening. 
It goes not better with him on such occasions than with many 
a poor German wife, who yet bears her lot with patience. She 
still loves her rough commander, even while he treats her with 
unmanly rudeness, and seeks to hide his weaknesses. So this 
true creature. Is his lord in danger? he defends him to the 
last, and often renders him the most signal services in skirmishes 
with the Knoten ; yea, he hesitates not to attack the sacred per- 
son of the beadle. He is denied admittance to the duel, because 
he would speedily, as an uninvited second, spring between the 
combatants, and as some assert, on account of such accidents 
as the following. A duellist had his nose cut off, and a large 
bull-dog which was in the room — perhaps they had forgot to 
give him his dinner — greedily swallowed it ; so greedily, that it 
was impossible to prevent it ! Whether the unnosed Bursche 
had a new one made for him by Geheimrath Grafe, or whether 
he afterwards wore a silver one, I am not prepared to say. 



THE STUDENT. 



179 



The student dog extends his student life far beyond that of 
his master, who turns him over into the hands of another on his 
own departure. It thus happens that many of these creatures 
travel from one hand to another, till, finally, they belong to no 
individual possessor but to a whole Chore, and live a free, 
unrestrained life. They then kneipe in rotation with the 
brethren of the Chore, all of whose dweUings they are ac- 
quainted with ; and if they appear a little lost during the rest 
of the day, yet they are regularly found at the places of public 
meeting for social enjoyment. There was, for instance, the 
little Tambourle here, which for many years lived only on 
sugar, which it received from the coffee-drinkers in a well- 
known coffee-house. At every fresh cup it demanded two or 
three pieces of sugar, as its established toll. 

It is also gratifying to see, when these welcome guests are 
grown old and weak, how the other dogs receive them, and 
stand strictly by these Bemossed Heads when they are at- 
tacked by the vulgarer dogs of the streets. The cultivated dog 
is no longer a merely carnivorous animal, he has accustomed 
himself to a variety of food ; but it is perhaps the peculiar 
characteristic of the student's dog that he drinks beer. Once 
used to it, it becomes his greatest enjoyment to empty a few 
choppins, and he seems not at all to dislike the phantasies of 
a half-fuddled state. To him by no means applies what Voigt 
has added to Linnasus's characteristic of the dog — " he draws 
himself back at the sight of a glass." 



The son of the Muses can as little be without his pipe as his 
dog. The enjoyment which it affords him, is at once single 
and manifold. It embellishes his pleasures, it comforts him in 
trouble, it warms him in the cold, it cools him in the heat of 
summer. Should ennui seize him, he fills his pipe, turns to his 
study, and what a fulness of thought comes over him as he 
gazes into the clouds of smoke, which, curling up from his 
mouth, shape themselves into mysterious forms ! There lies in 



180 PRIVATE LIFE OF 

it a power of inexhaustible reproduction. And how shall his 
wine and his beer smack without his pipe ? In short, it is a 
discovery which wonderfully unites in itself all opposite quali- 
ties. With all the parts and attributes thereunto belonging, it 
constitutes, when displayed upon his walls, his room an ar- 
moury, which the tender hands of the ladies do not even 
disdain to embellish. 

Of the continued changes which pipes in the course of time 
undergo in their fashion and construction, many cabinets would 
convince us, did they only contain a collection of ten years' 
duration. We have no intention to weary the reader with the 
description of such a cabinet ; but he will allow us to state of 
what members a modern pipe consists, and what is necessary 
to its complete use and enjoyment. 

The essential portions of a pipe are the mouth-piece, the 
tube, the w^ater-sack, and the head. The two last pieces are 
united in the meerschaum and the clay-pipe into one. The 
mouth-piece, at the upper part, is wrought out of horn. It is 
made thicker or thinner, longer or shorter, with a greater or 
less bore, as it may be required. The long mouth-pieces, 
having various partitions, or members, as they are called, are 
so finely wrought that they are quite elastic, and are sold at a 
proportionate price. The mouth-piece is commonly united to 
the tube by an elastic portion called a Schlauch, which is con- 
structed of elastic wire and silk. If the pipe is intended to be a 
very handsome one, there is still another piece interposed be- 
tween the schlauch and the tube, which is made of roe's-horn, 
and styled the roe-crown. The tube itself is manufactured from 
various materials ; the coarser ones out of juniper-wood, or 
cherry-tree, the finer ones out of beech and ebony; but that 
which is most highly valued, on account of its durability and 
agreeable odour, is the Turkish weichsel, or agriot, a kind of 
wild cherry. The tubes are, again, of different lengths and 
thickness, from a span in length to some yards. The Turkish 
pipes are the longest. 

To the tube is generally affixed the water-sack, called also 
by the northern Germans the sponge-box ; a little reservoir, of 



THE STUDENT. 181 

wedgewood or porcelain. For elegant pipes still more beau- 
tiful, but less useful ones, are made of horn. 

The pipe-head is, however, the part on which the most cost, 
art, and ornament are bestowed. The lower part of it, which, 
tapering away, is fitted into the water-sack, is called the boot. 
The head is adorned with a variety of paintings and inscrip- 
tions. We see upon them, as upon snuff-boxes, many humo- 
rous occurrences perpetuated. They are enriched with the 
portraits of handsome women and celebrated men, and the 
painting is sometimes so beautiful as to raise their price to 
several Louisdore each. The students are accustomed to com- 
pliment each other with presents of pipe-heads, ornamented 
with their coats of arms, and a dedication on the reverse side. 

All the various sections of the pipe are so fitted to each other 
that you can readily separate them, in order to clean them ; but 
they are prevented from separating when in use, by silk cords 
which pass through small metallic rings, and are secured at 
top and bottom. These cords serve also to hang them up by. 
On the pipes of the Chore-Burschen the cords proceeding from 
the head to the mouth-piece, are not only secured but con- 
tinued, and hanging down at liberty, bear the coloured Chore- 
tassels. 

The student uses in the course of the day, different pipes. 
In the morning he gladly smokes out of a Turkish pipe, if such 
a one is at his command. This has a small mouth-piece, a 
long tube, and a meerschaum head, which gives it its greater 
value. It is on this account so highly esteemed ; the student 
asserting that no pipe smokes so pleasantly; but its price, if it 
be genuine, varies from two to six, or more, Louisdores. The 
material out of which the real meerschaum head is made, is 
dug in Spain, Portugal, and the ancient Thebes, and consists of 
a silicious clay, in chemical combination with water. The 
other heads are made of various materials, and the most usual 
are of porcelain or wedgewood. 

The meerschaum, called by the Turks (Myrsen, Keffekil), 
the material out of which the ancient Samian vessels were 
made, is yet used in Turkey for the manufacture of pipe-heads ; 

16 



]82 PRIVATE LIFE OF 

of which only the smaller kinds are allowed to be exported. It 
is chiefly dug in ancient Thebes, and is by no means employed 
in its crude state, but undergoes a manipulation, similar to that 
of the porcelain paste. It is exposed to a certain process of 
fermentation ; the softened mass is diluted and washed, then 
half dried, pressed in moulds, and bored whilst in them. The 
heads thus formed are then dried in the shade, and afterwards 
hard burnt in the furnace. After this they are boiled in milk, 
then in linseed oil or wax, and finally poUshed with Dutch rush 
(equisetum) and leather. The finest formed heads — washed 
ware — may not be exported, although the Turks on the whole 
prefer the heads made from burnt Bole. As the Turkish heads 
are not considered handsome in shape, and have too narrow a 
bore, they are again turned and rebored at Ruhla in the district 
of Gotha, and being brought to a more modern form, are then 
boiled in tallow or wax, and again polished. The turnings are 
used in the preparation of imitation meerschaum heads, which 
are more brittle and less lasting than the real ones. In these 
heads manufactured in Lemgo, there is no real meerschaum 
clay used, but a mixture of clay, chalk, and egg-shells. These 
heads are heavier and more frangible than the genuine; they 
more readily become rough and unclean, and take a metallic 
streak from gold or silver, which is not the case with meer- 
schaum heads. — Leonhai'd's Oryhtognosie. 

A new pipe requires great care in bringing it into use, till it 
is as it is phrased, besmoked, or seasoned ; that is, till the inside 
of the pipe-head is coated with a black crust of finely cemented- 
together tobacco dust. Till this is eifected the pipe has not a 
good flavour, and it requires to be well and vigorously smoked 
out. To promote this seasoning, it is customary to smear the 
inside of the head with sugar-water, before it is filled with 
tobacco. This seasoning of the meerschaum head is particu- 
larly difficult. While it is warm, during the first time of smok- 
ing, it must not be touched with the fingers ; it must be suffered 
to cool slowly, and must be protected from being touched or 
rubbed by any thing. 

The long pipes, called house-pipes, serve the Burschen usually 



THE STUDENT. 183 

at the Kneips ; the very short one, on their walks, or when out 
shooting, as a long one might then be inconvenient. That there 
are people who extravagantly carry their luxury so far as, from 
year to year, at all times and seasons, to smoke genuine meer- 
schaum pipes, any one may, to his astonishment, read in Bul- 
wer's Ernest Maltravers. 

The white clay pipes, which were formerly in general use, 
are no longer used by the student ; but they may be daily seen 
in the mouths of countrymen. 

Thus we have put together a right noble pipe, and will now 
take a peep at the apparatus requisite to its enjoyment. The 
most indispensable, certainly, is tobacco. To lecture on the 
various qualities of this article, we want both patience and 
sufficient knowledge. How many descending steps are there 
between the finest Knaster, and the weed which fumes up rank 
and qualmish from the pipe of the wood-cutter ! The worst 
sort is jocosely called " three times round the body for a farth- 
ing," which may fittingly be smoked over that liquor called 
" three-men wine," because it would require two men to hold a 
man while the third forced this Tartarian wine down his throat. 

Much luxury is expended over that little ornamental reposi- 
tory for the preservation of this precious commodity — the so- 
called tobacco-casket. Abroad the student carries the narcotic 
herb with him in a tobacco-pouch, which is often ornamented 
with embroidery by some fair hand. The long and thickly- 
piled together strips of paper (spills), which are used to light 
the pipes, are in Germany known by the name of " Fidibus,'' 
and its derivation from " fidelibus patribus," the jolly monks, 
shows that these good fellows did not despise the enjoyment of 
tobacco, when they could in private breathe its beatifying fumes. 

Another yet similar derivation is the following. At the time 
when the students were forbidden to smoke tobacco, they had 
private smoking-companies, where the host sent round a Latin 
bill with the following contents, which the student who agreed 
to go to it, undersigned not with his real, but with a purposely 
assumed name : 



184 PRIVATE LIFE OF 

Fid. Ibus. 

S. D. N. H. 

Hodie hora vii. a. v. s. 

That is, Fidelibus fratribus salutem dicit N. hospes. Hodie hora 
septima (apparebit in museo meo, herba Nicotiana) abunde vobis 
satisfaciam. As soon as they all were assembled, they placed 
themselves in a circle, and each lit his pipe with his bill, as a 
Fid ibus offering — whence arose the term Fidibus. 

The inconsumable Fidibus is a new invention with which our 
English friend, Mr. Traveller, was struck in the lodging of 
Freisleben, and in his notes thereon very graphically described. 

When we have smoked a while, it is necessary to press 
together the mass which has expanded itself proudly in the 
pipe head, and for this purpose is used a sort of stamper, or 
stopper, also furnished with a knob of wood. This instrument 
has received a variety of names. In Heidelberg it is called 
Dentsch, — a name coined for the cogent reason that it will 
rhyme with mensch, without which the poet would find himself 
in what the Americans call, an " eternal fix." Another name 
is Melibocus, after the mountain on the Bergstrasse. In this 
instrument there is generally contained a wire, which you can 
draw out in order to give air to the clogged up part of your 
pipe. It is thus at once a stopper and an opener. 

The process of smoking is a species of distillation, whereby 
the water-sack, as a receiver, takes off the fluid product, while 
the fume passes into the still-head, and is thence conveyed to 
the mouth, where it achieves its narcotic purposes, and thence 
is again discharged into the air. It is to be expected that this 
chemical apparatus will from time to time require cleaning ; 
and for this end is used a small feather for the shorter tubes, 
and for the longer ones the fine clear stalk of a peculiarly tall 
and strong kind of grass (Luzula maxima) which grows in the 
woods. Some poor imp, unfit for other work, undertakes to 
furnish the smoker with this necessary article, and those who 
gather them in the woody hills round Heidelberg, even extend 
their trade in them as far as Mannheim and Karlsruhe. When 



THE STUDENT. 185 

the stranger mounts up to the ruins of Heidelberg castle, he is 
often accosted by this Binsen-Buhe or Blumen-Bube, Rush-boy 
or Flower-boy, as he is called, who, with most graceful obei- 
sances, presents him with a small nosegay, and patiently waits 
for a substantial token of its acceptance. This is the great 
gatherer and furnisher of the Binsen, or rush, as it is unbotani- 
cally called, for the fumiferous public. 

The cigar, which we must not forget, is much less affected 
by the student. Yet he sometimes prefers it to a pipe, over a 
cup of coffee ; and then is he accustomed, with great satisfac- 
tion, to drive forth the smoke through his nostrils, in order to 
make himself thoroughly conscious of his luxury. 

If the reader has held out actually to the end of this disser- 
tation on smoking, then we are very certain that the general 
and determined smoking in Germany has arrested his attention. 
We do not pretend to offer a reason for the remarkable growth 
of the practice of smoking amongst us during the last ten or 
twenty years. It seems to us somewhat far-fetched to assign 
as the cause, as has been done by a learned German writer, 
that it is a natural necessity to dull and modify to a healthful 
degree the all too dominant nervous sensibility and imaginative 
susceptibility of the over-refined, and especially of the learned,^ 
man. 

We may remark, in conclusion, that, amongst the students, 
snuff-taking is much less common than smoking: and, having 
thus sufficiently described, to our fancy, the two most constant 
companions of the Son of the Muses, his dog and his pipe, we 
may now, without further care, leave him to follow his labours 
and amusements in such good company. 



16* 



CHAPTER X. 

RURAL AND SUMMER AMUSEMENTS OF THE STUDENTS. 

The natural beauties of Heidelberg are well known abroad. 
Who is he who has looked upon its picturesque environs with 
a healthful mind, and has not been enraptured with them ? 
Therefore, the son of the Muses, who is here passing his 
student years, eagerly hastens out in the lovely days of summer 
into the free regions of nature that lie around. The walks in 
the immediate vicinity of the city are diligently trodden by 
him. Above all, the castle enjoys the frequent visit>3 of the 
student youth in thronging numbers. The student is to be met 
here every hour of the day, but he still more loves to survey 
here the beauties of a moonliajht niffht. Leaning; over the 
terrace, he looks down upon the city as it lies in its solemn 
silence stretched along the bank of the Neckar. Its inhabitants, 
with all their troubles and pleasures, — his companions, with all 
the pursuits and passions of restless youth, are hushed into 
deep slumber. He only wakes, but the hours which he steals 
from sleep are not lost. He glances wide over the plain of the 
Pfalz, which, illuminated by the moon's uncertain light, offers 
to the eye no longer its boundary of hills. Opposite to him, 
the castle rears its gigantic pile, and varying its outlines with 
every change of the moonlight, challenges the imagination to 
equal its bold features in its highest flights. The moon now 
advances from behind some envious cloud, and the windows of 



SUMMER AMUSEMENTS. 187 

the palace of Otto Heinrich appear magically lit up, and it 
seems again to stand in all the splendour of past ages. But 
the solitary watcher has unconsciously wandered forward till 
he finds himself standing close to the spot where Matthieson 
sung his elegy. Suddenly all falls back into shade, and before 
him stands a sublime image of the wrath and passions of man 
— the rifted tower — one part blown up and hurled, in one 
mighty mass, into the moat. In the vaulted chambers of the 
yet standing portion, the mysterious forms of heroes long gone 
down to the dust, seem to erect themselves, and to cry wo 
over the desolating fury of the French. The wanderer feels a 
momentary shiver pass through him — but he glances up to 
heaven, which expands above him in its glorious clearness — 
an image of divine peace and rest; the owl, with its dismal 
shout of joy, brings him back from his dreams, and in silence 
he descends to the silent city. 

How sweet 'tis in the air ! 
No hateful tyrant there 

Scathes Nature's fair reign. 
No base adulator, 
No slanderous traitor, 

Empoisons the plain. 

Salts. 

The cool shades of the Wolfsbrunnen afford the student a 
delicious retreat in the heat of a summer's day; and many 
another spot of the vicinity are sought by him with equal 
delight, which have been already often sketched and de- 
scribed. 

This is not the place to attempt it, and were it, we should 
despair of saying any thing more on the natural beauties of 
Heidelberg ; but we cannot resist quoting a few passages 
from a very popular article on Heidelberg in the Halle Year- 
Book. 

After the author has described the view from the balcony of 
the castle, he says, " While in the youthful mind the sentiment 
of an infinite fulness of life springs up from those rich and 



188 RURAL AND 

wide prospects, the stiller and more secret charms of the 
environs of Heidelberg allure it to thoughtful and more intimate 
observations of nature. The dark shadowy paths of the castle 
gardens invite to solitary walks. Every where on all hands 
hidden glens lead away into the mountains, and winding path- 
ways provoke to farther advances, and conduct to continually 
fresh discoveries of charming valleys and woods, new views in 
the distance, and more romantic places of repose. At one 
place we quit the view of the ruin and the plain, where serene 
but busy life displays itself; a few steps forward, and the most 
profound solitude receives us ; instead of the laughing fields 
and sloping vineyards, solemn thick beech woods, in which for 
hours we meet no trace of human existence, engulf us. We 
bury ourselves in the depths of the Odenvvald — then suddenly 
we stand on the airy peak of the mountain, or a wide ravine 
rends itself out of the hill-side before us, and there again lies in 
our view the whole magnificence of the Rhine-plain at our 
feet ! We see in the distance the ancient Worms, and the 
towers of Speir, and of Trifells, where King Richard sate in 
captivity ; and yonder the ruins of the castle of Hambach ; 
and in this one glance comes before us a vast fragment of 
history — the Niebelungen Lied, and the old holy Roman Em- 
pire, with its secular and spiritual Electors and Princes under 
the Emperor, and Luther before the Diet. And then sweep 
before us the Crusades ; and then again the times in which the 
wild troops of Turenne came hither from behind that Rhine- 
stream, the French soldiers playing at ball, as they came, in 
the Dome of Speir, with the skulls of German kings ; and 
finally, the latest scenes of the past, when upon that castle of 
Hambach the German and the French tricolour flapped on the 
same standard staff. And these histories which we have lived 
over again in this one view, are not yet dead and worn out, 
but still plant themselves in the very heart of the present, and 
intertwine themselves beneath our feet there, in many an intri- 
cate winding. A network of boundaries lies before us ; every 
fresh glance falls on a fresh territory — upon a different race 
of the German people. There, towards the south, the ancient 



SUMMER AMUSEMENTS. 189 

Swabia shadows itself forth ; here, northward, Hesse divides 
itself from the Pfalz ; there, beyond the river, contends the 
active French spirit against the strict old Bavarian discipline, 
and nourishes itself with its beloved traditions and daring hopes. 
Still farther off can we look into this very France itself, which 
for centuries has been so fatally disastrous to us. Those 
steam-vessels which cover the Rhine, and bear in them tra- 
vellers of all nations, are ready to convey us upward to the 
foot of the Alps, or downward to the sea ; and the busy and 
restless traffic, which moving between these points daily rushes 
to and fro, past us, there presses itself into the very centre of 
our field of vision." 

The reader must pardon us that we have permitted ourselves 
to be seduced by the charms of nature to inweave here what 
might perhaps have found a place in one of the last chapters ; 
where indeed we propose to consider what influence the student 
life has on the spirit and mind of the pupil of Minerva. He 
will allow us now to return to our present subject. 

The more distant places the student seeks by means of a 
horse or carriage. The riding horses for hire are truly, for 
the most part, wretched jades. Even the means which the 
Renommist of Zacharias used would prove unavailing here ; 
and what he thus describes, on such Rosinantes as these could 
not come to pass. 

A spur-stroke and a curse gave wings unto his horse. 

The crack of ponderous whip, and rib-thumps, sans remorse, 

Sent him all foaming on, till almost, in a minute, 

The country lay behind him, the next, he was not in it. 

A peculiar class of equipages are let out in the university cities, 
and are hired by the student partly on account of their cheap- 
ness, but more especially, because he can charioteer himself. He 
styles these little chaises with one horse, a one-span, or one- 
engine. With one of these he undertakes journeys which, 
especially on Sundays, stretch themselves as far as Mannheim, to 
the Hardt mountains, to the Melibocus, or even to Karlsruhe 



190 RURAL AND 

and Baden-Baden. The persecuted horse who drags these 
vehicles, knows the way from Mannheim and other places, 
much better than his temporary master ; and when in dark 
nights a one-engine goes wrong or comes to any accident it is 
for the most part because his driver will not let him have his 
own way. Many a time the poor beasts are so weary that the 
student can no longer urge them forward with the whip, and is 
obliged to have recourse to stones that he picks from the road. 

Water excursions are seldom undertaken, because the ill- 
constructed pleasui'e-boats do not allow him to guide them him- 
self. The neighbourhood of so many beautiful countries incites 
the student to more extensive excursions, and he travels during 
the vacations, into Switzerland, the Rhine country, and other 
places, chiefly in company of a few friends. We may suppose 
it to be on some incident connected with one of these excur- 
sions that Uhland has founded his beautiful ballad of 

THE WIRTHIN'S DAUGHTER. 

Three students crossed over the Rhine-stream one day, 
'Twas to a Frau Wirthin's they wended their way. 

" Frau Wirthin, hast thou good beer and wine, 
And where is that lovely daughter of thine ]" 

" My beer and wine are fresh and clear ; 
My dear daughter lies upon the death-bier !" 

And as they stepped to the innermost room, 
There she was lying robed for the tomb. 

The first he withdrew then the veiling screen. 
And gazed upon her with sorrowful mien : 

" Ah, wert thou living, fair flower of earth, 
How should I love thee from this day forth !" 

The second he covered the pale, dead face, 
And turn'd him round and wept apace : 

" Ah, there thou art lying on thy death-bier, 
And how have I loved thee for many a year !" 



SUMMER AMUSEMENTS. 191 

The third he lifted once more the veil, 
And kissed her upon the lips so pale : 

" Thee I loved ever ! yet love thee to-day ! 
And still shall I love thee for aye and for aye !" 

That the student is not totally debarred from field-sports 
either, the number of game dogs that he keeps sufficiently testify. 
A tract of land lying along the Neckar, between Handschuh- 
sheim and Dossenheim, is assigned to him as his sporting ground ; 
yet he is forbidden by the law, to take any game-dog thither 
with him. This is probably to prevent damage to the autumnal 
and winter crops of the peasants ; which would otherwise be 
sorely overrun by men and dogs. This regulation, and the high 
cultivation of this tract, are the cause that the solitary student, 
wandering thither with his gun, thinks himself lucky if he returns 
home with an odd hare or partridge. But he has also frequent 
admittance to other hunting-grounds which lie in the farms of 
different citizens. The amusement of fishing does not appear 
so very attractive to the German as to the Englishman, and one 
seldom now sees an isolated son of the Muses, who patiently 
watches the line which is thrown into the Neckar-stream, till 
a little fish befools itself with the bait. The student loves not 
that sort of fishing, which according to his German notion, seems 
at once a phlegmatic and tedious business; and there is a cari- 
cature of an Englishman made by the students, which represents 
him as sitting patiently watching his float so long, that a spider 
had spun his web in the angle of the rod and line, and had 
already caught several flies there before the fisherman had 
hooked a single fin. 

Before we quit the summer pleasures of the student, we must 
say a few words on the Kirchweihs — wakes. The reader 
must not alarm himself with the fear that we are going to bore 
him with an essay on church solemnities — we allude only to 
those popular festivities with which the anniversary of the 
dedication of a church is celebrated. As is often the case, this 
feast has lost its original intention ; scarcely any one thinks of 
the meaning of the word, which in the mouth of the ordinary 



192 RURAL AND 

people is corrupted to Kerve, Every little nest, much too poor 
for the possession of a church, yes, many an individual public 
house, even, has its particular Kirchweih. By what authority 
it has usurped this name and hohday, nobody troubles himself 
to inquire. People are quite contented that, through these 
Kirchweihen, of which one or more fall out within their reach 
every Sunday during the summer, they find occasion to dance, 
drink, and sing. From every city gate then presses forth a 
motley group ; the worthy burger, the Handwerksbursche, the 
alert young dressmaker, the homely housemaid, all are crowd- 
ing forward in a promiscuous throng. Amongst them one 
descries companies of a higher grade, which rejoice themselves 
in the splendid summer's day. 

So gladly each suns himself to-day ! 

Out of low houses, with damp, dull rooms ; 

Out of the bonds of labour and trade ; 

Out of the crush of the narrow alleys; 

Out of the church's reverent night, — 

They all are brought forth into the light. 

See ! only see ! how nimbly sallies 

The multitude, scattering through garden and field ; 

How it gaily again on the broad tlood rallies. 

Alive with all joys that boats can yield. 

Who has not called to mind these lines of the great master, 
when he has looked on the stream of the popular throng that 
has swept on towards one of the resorts of holiday pleasures. 
In the midst of this tumult the students are also to be seen 
following the current of the great stream in smaller or greater 
companies. If in modern times the singular attire less distin- 
guishes him from the crowd, yet the practised eye readily 
singles out the student from the Handwerksbursche and the 
shop assistant. On the countenance of the Handworker we 
see displayed the joy which he feels to find himself once more 
for a day able to flee from the dusty workship, and the pride of 
showing himself in his Sunday bravery, in the astonished eyes, 
as he behoves, of the world. This holiday array he has truly 



SUMMER AMUSEMENTS. 193 

often thrown upon his back in a queer enough style. In black 
frock coat, white trousers, high cravat, and glittering boots, 
stalks he clumsily along, and his rude taste extends itself to the 
very pipe which he carries in his hand. On the contrary, 
the Pendulum has clad himself after the newest French 
fashion. All is smoothed and polished off to a nicety. He 
looks like a dish that the hungry Nero has licked into the most 
elegant cleanness. Scarcely dare he turn himself in his beau- 
tiful clothes lest he should crumple the ornate and artistical 
knot of his neckcloth ; lest he should derange the nice tornure 
of his locks. He wheels himself aside only to see whether the 
admiring gaze of the fair sex is not following him. " JVothig," 
would the student say — that is, " it would be well for him if 
it did !" 

The student disdains, Knoten-like, to beautify himself on a 
Sunday. One day is like another to him ; he can devote it 
either to study or to pleasure. So, as on other days, he 
lounges carelessly along. His attire is not studied, but it is 
convenient ; and according to individual taste, more or less 
excellently chosen. A short frock-coat, often of a peculiar cut, 
and the little cap, are all that distinguish him. Formerly, 
indeed, the costume, one entire singularity, and the coloured 
Chore-ribbands, the variegated cap, and the tri-colour of the 
Burschenschaft, were worn openly. But in spite of all this, 
nothing is so easy as to recognise the student by his free and 
self-possessed carriage. Saucily, often haughtily, he observes 
the groups of onward-pouring people, without turning a step 
out of his track ; careless whether he be an object of notice, 
being only too secure that he is. So leaves he the city Besom 
to the Handwerksbursche, nodding, however, a passing greeting 
to this and the other as they go by, assured that, arrived at the 
dancing place, they will speedily forsake the Knoten to fly to 
the arms of the more favoured dancer. 

I catch the hamlet's stir and cheer, 
The people's genuine heaven is here ! 
Here great and small shout glad and free, 
Here I'm a man — here may one be ! 
17 



194 RURAL AND 

The Kirchweihs which in the neighbourhood of Heidelberg 
are the most noted, are those of Necliarsteinach and Kirscheim. 
Thither, some years ago, some of tlie most conspicuous burger 
famiUes were accustomed to make an annual rustic pilgrimage 
of pleasure. This glory is gone by ; yet we would recommend 
the latter still as the best place in which for the stranger to 
witness this folks'-feast, if so we may term it. We follow the 
sound of obstreperous music, and enter a garden, where a mot- 
ley multitude presents itself to our sight. All the tables are 
filled ; people eat and drink, chatter and smoke, laugh and sing, 
all in one chaos of merry confusion. Hither and thither, where 
an impatient guest thumps vigorously on the table with his 
glass, run the waiters — in the student's tongue, Faxe. At one 
table an honest burger company has planted itself, and over a 
glass of wine, weigh seriously whether the European balance 
of power can be maintained, and criticise the government of 
the city. 

No, no, I like him not ; our span-new burgermaster, 
As he's so bold already, he'll come it thick and faster. 
And for the town, what doth he, pray ? 
Gets it not worse then every day ! 

Certain youngsters have seated themselves beside them in a 
state of considerable perplexity, whether they shall be held fast 
by the wise conversation of these elders, or shall follow the 
bewitching sounds of youthful merriment. 

At the next table, a knot of Bauers carry on a zealous dis- 
course, of which one catches these syllables in passing, — " Oney 
think o'that, now ; that the thing can run so wi'out bosses. It's 
got the divil in't's body, an' that the outlandish folk have fun' 
out again !" It is the railroads that have thrown the fat farmers 
into such a heat, and they raise themselves into such a fidget 
with talking of the steam-engines, that they blow as much 
smoke out of their earthen pipes, called by the students earthly 
pipes, as the engines themselves can send out steam. 

But at another table we behold the dear image of youth. 
The Handwerksbursch, who treats his maiden with wine and 



SUMMER AMUSEMENTS. 195 

cakes ; the school youth who is there playing off the bursche 
before them, but looks round, ever and anon, lest the original 
that he is counterfeiting be near, or his teacher, who walking 
this way might reprove his presumption ; the fresh country 
maiden, and the gay damsel of the city, all desire to make 
themselves amiable, and seek by their tittering and laughter, to 
let every one observe that they are capitally entertained by 
their swains. 

One table is occupied by the students, who, revelling in a 
rich repast, now look up at the beauty of the Neckar-Thal, and 
now mix themselves in the throng, whispering with this and 
that maiden, to whom their shepherds cast frowns like thunder- 
clouds. But careless of this, the sons of the Muses conduct 
them forward to the dancing-floor : 

And all already dance like mad — 
Juchhe ! Juchhe ! 
Juchheisa ! Heisa ! Ha ! 
So goes the fiddle-bow. 

Faster and faster goes the music, and ever madder whirls 
the waltz. In complete equahty and freedom seem here the 
most opposite elements to be mingled. The atmosphere is 
already smothering hot, and clouds of dust fly up. But that 
matters not. He that finds it too hot flings off his coat, and 
dances in his shirt sleeves; he that does not find the music keep 
time, helps it with the stamping of his foot. All seems totally 
happy — all unity. But the wine has, meantime, heated their 
heads, and suddenly in one corner of the hall rises a terrible 
hubbub. The strife has arisen about that maiden who, there 
weeping, endeavours to part the combatants. " What would 
the silly Knoten?" cries a student. Then springs wrathfuUy 
forth a brisk tailor. '• What be we? Knoten be we? dirt be 
we? Who says that, is an ass, and I say it !" A swarm of 
students that have rushed into the saloon raise a burst of hearty 
laughter. Then blazes the wrath of the Handwerksburschen ; 
" Brother Hamburger ! brother Leipsicer !" they cry. Numbers 



196 RURAL AND 

of them rush together, and strike with sticks, chair-legs, and 
T)Ottles, at the Uttle knot of students furiously, who grimly stand 
on their defence. 

The Bursche shouts — 

"Let each man arm himself like me, with sturdy stang, 
And chase unto destruction the beastl}'^ Lumpen gang." 
'Tis said and it is done ! Bellona storms on high, 
And the battle is renewed with menace and reply. 

Zacharice's Renommist. 

But bravery must yield to multitudes. 

They now begin to quit the bloody battle-field. 
Yet slowly draw they off, and scarcely seem to yield ; 
And loath unto the base their noble backs to show. 
They whirl their last club at them, as from the ground they go. 

Ibid. 

Even the fair ones have divided themselves into two parties, 
and one detachment wheels off with the overpowered body that 
they may enjoy the happiness of wandering homewards on the 
arm of the Bursche. 

This burlesque student song on the Handwerksburschen is 
very descriptive of these scenes : 



GOD GREET THEE, BROTHER STRAUBINGER. 

God greet thee. Brother Straubinger, 

I'am glad to meet thee though ; 
Perhaps it is unknown to thee, 

That from Heidelberg I go. 
The master and the mistress, 

Of them I can't complain, 
But with these gents, the students, 

No mortal can contain. 

I lately bought me in the fair, 
A band, red, black, and golden, 

And hung my watch to it, that there 
From falling 't might be holden. 



SUMMER AMUSEMENTS. I97 

Fierce as a horse a Bursch appears, 

And at me right he batters ; 
He dashed the watch about my ears, 

The riband tore to tatters,* 

And as I in the Faul en-Bel tzf 

Was with my sweetheart sitting, 
He nicknamed me a Knotenpeltz, 

For such fat Besom fitting J 
As in the dance I whirled about, 

They 'gan to stamp and rumble ; 
The Senius stretched his leg so out,5 

That I must o'er it tumble. 

I'll off by Zurich unto Berne, 

And there I think to stay, so ; 
And if ray sweetheart false should turn, 

She may write to me, and say so. 
J must be stupid as an ass, 

Or as three oxen, fully, 
If I should suffer such a pass 

From this Studenten bully. 

We, in conclusion may mention among the summer plea- 
sures of the student, the game at nine-pins, to which the son of 
Minerva devotes many an hour. Yet to describe the various 
kinds of this game, would prove, probably, a little wearisome. 
The student uses the same as all the other classes of people in 
Germany, and which are, perhaps, already familiar to the fo- 
reigner. 

* Because it was the Burschenschafl riband, and therefore a great desecration 
to be worn by a Knoten. 

t A well known Wirthshouse. t A Besom is a girl. § The Senior. 



17* 



CHAPTER XL 



■V^I^TEE AMTTTSEaiENTS OF THE STrDE>^T. 



He who lives out of himself, always does better than he who lives in himself. 

Seume. 



Let us now devote a few pages to the pleasures of winter. 
If we give a distinguished place amongst these, to the amuse- 
ments which" the. Museum, and many private circles afford, we 
must at the same time adaiit that particular circumstances pre- 
vent the students to any great extent seeking the latter. But as 
these circles are easy of access to the w'ell-bred student even 
without letters of introduction, if he is at the pains to seek that 
introduction himself, we can by no means omit their mention. 
In the houses of professors and other leading families of the 
place, the student is hospitably received. Reading, music, social 
games, and the dance, here furnish an inexhaustible source of 
entertainment. Here he finds an opportunity to accomplish 
himself in social habits, and by polishing the rough outside to 
discover that solid interior which can best be strengthened and 
perfected by a union of active intercourse with knowledge ; and 
who will deny that this desirable condition is alone to be at- 
tained by the society of refined and accomplished women ? 

With softest persuasion and gentlest prayers, 
The sceptre of manners sweet Woman still bears ; 
Extinguishes discord, which ragingly glows — 
Teaches wild powers .that malignantly fight, 
Themselves in her own lovely form to unite, 
And combines_^what in nature else separately flows. 

Schiller'' s Duties of Women. 



WDTTEPv AilTSEMENT^. I99 

The student the more gladly joins these circles, as he is sure 
always to find some of his companions already there, for the 
dance-loving host continuaUv recruits its members from the sons 
of Minerva. On the other hand, the Museum presents manifold 
points of contact between the students and higher classes of the 
inhabitants of the city. We again avail ourselves of some re- 
marks exactly to the point, out of the Halle Year-Book. The 
author of the article says, '■' Heidelberg is only a city of mode- 
rate size, but it contains sufficient elements for a superior 
society. In the next place, it has formed itself into various 
small circles, into which also the student of good disposition and 
accordant taste readily procures admittance, and where he finds 
himself received with simple cordiality. Most of the professors, 
are very accessible to individual students, and throw in their 
way opportunities for a more close hterary intimacy : many of 
them thereby frequently collect round them large social circles. 

" In the next place, many English famihes, which have taken 
up their abode for a time in Heidelberg, offer desirable points of 
union to various lively social circles there ; and with them vie 
other strangers, possessors of estates in the immediate vicinity 
of the city, amongst which in this respect is particularly well 
known the hospitable Stiit Xeuberg. Many of the substantial 
bursrers of Heidelberg also endeavour to furnish those students 
that seek their acquaintance by letters of introduction, or other- 
wise, with the amenities of social exhilaration and improvement 
These opportunities for a worthy enjoyment of life are accepted 
by a great part of the students in the best spirit, and to evident 
advantage. Walks in company and excursions into the sur- 
rounding country in summer, and musical entertainments in 
winter, bring the students into amalgamation with city society, 
subject their freedom of thought to the wholesome restraints of 
good manners, and give to their enjoyment of fife at once scope 
and modification. But all these different circles find themselves 
included and brought together into a comprehensive social unity, 
in the Museum. This establisment founded as a joint-stock 
property by the inhabitants and professors of the city, is of high 
value both to the social life of Heidelberg in general, and in par- 



200 WINTER AMUSEMENTS 

ticular to the student world. For a moderate yearly subscrip- 
tion, the stndent becomes a member of this union, and through 
that a partaker of its social pleasures ; enjoys the advantage of 
access to a rich collection of political, scientific, and literary 
periodicals, and new works ; and is even entitled to a certain 
co-operation in the affairs of the union ; a portion of the ball- 
directors, for instance, being elected from amongst them. The 
spacious and handsome suite of apartments in the Museum, 
which are always open to the members, give the most preferable 
opportunities to the students for having a common table, and 
for other social meetings, and by this means brings about a more 
extensive intimacy and acquaintance amongst these young 
people. But especially is the independent manner and estima- 
tion with which they see themselves received in such a union, 
an incentive to them to maintain this position with urbanity and 
moderation ; and the social equality with their teachers which 
here prevails, far from diminishing their respect for them, serves 
only, through the confidence reposed in them, to elevate and 
ennoble them. Inconceivable is the auspicious influence of the 
Museum on the conduct of the students, and their good under- 
standing with the professors, and with the whole of the best 
society of the city ; and the cases are rare in which any one by 
a wanton disturbance of the general enjoyment, loses sight of 
that discretion which the company expects from him. Truly 
not all the students have the taste for these nobler social plea- 
sures, which are offered to them in so friendly and disinterested 
a manner. They who regard the established rules of social 
manners as a restraint, incompatible with the enjoyment of their 
academical freedom, seek less select circles, where such rules 
are more freely dispensed with. The society of the middle 
classes of Heidelberg, though decent and lively, yet wants that 
higher finish which elevates the young man, while it compels him 
to watchfulness over himself. The student feels himself above 
the society of such circles, and, as only too frequently happens, 
he makes them feel his superiority in an unbecoming manner, 
making them the butts of his wit, and the objects of his wanton 
humours. The Heidelberg citizens have had repeated occasion 



OF THE STUDENT. 201 

to rue this overbearing spirit of the students, and they have 
never, and can never be able to establish a more satisfactory 
and secure relationship with such society." 

But the life of a large city comes near enough to the Heidel- 
berg students. The Mannheim theatre is chiefly filled by per- 
sons from Heidelberg; the saloons of Mannheim society, in 
which the exclusiveness of English high life, and of German 
aristocracy, appear softened by French urbanity and South- 
German good-nature, are not impassable to him ; and the more 
favoured may, in the little court of the widowed Grand Duchess 
Stephanie, become acquainted with the fine yet easy manners of 
a circle distinguished by birth and accomplishment. 

Many a romance weaves itself here in the intercourse of the 
social circles — in the crowd of the ball-room ; and strong chains 
of love often become fabricated, which conduct the maiden far 
from the walls of Heidelberg, and teach her to forget, on a dis- 
tant hearth, her beautiful native home. If on a lovely summer's 
night we linger late on the castle height, we often, as we return, 
become the partakers of the enjoyment of a serenade, the offer- 
ing which a son of Minerva brings to show to his chosen one 
his watchfulness. At a distance we listen to a beautiful song, 
whose delivery, full of tenderness and feeling, is supported by 
the accompaniment of a guitar. 



TRUE LOVE. 

When in the gloomy midnight deep 
My solitary watch I keep, 
I think on her I left behind, 
And ask is she still true and kind. 

When I was forced to march away, 
How warm a kiss she gave that day ; 
With ribands bright my cap she drest, 
And clasped me to her faithful breast. 

She loves me well, to me is kind, 
Therefore I keep a cheerful mind : 



202 WINTER AMUSEMENTS 

Through coldest nights my bosom glows 
Whene'er on her my thoughts repose. 

Now by the dim lamp's feeble light, 
Perchance upon thy bed to-night 
Thy thoughts to thy beloved are given, 
With nightly prayer for him to Heaven ! 

O, if thou weep'st by grief distressed, 
To think of me with danger prest, 
Be calm, God keeps me every where, 
A faithful soldier is his care ! 

Or we follow with insatiate ear the accord which sends to us 
through the stillness of the night a full concert of wind music. 
There, under the window, see we scattered light glimmer, and 
by degrees perceive the separate music-desks, round which the 
dark figures have ranged themselves. But the third piece is 
ended, and all sinks back into the stillness of night. Many a 
son of the Muses is detained in Ruperto-Carolo, fast bound by 
bonds of gentle witchcraft, till the father's stern behest compels 
him to tear himself from this paradise. 



THE DEPARTURE. 

What rings and what sings in the streets so down there 1 
Open the windows, ye maids so fair. 
'Tis the Bursche, away he windeth, 
The Comitat him attendeth. 

The others go shouting and wave their hats round. 
With ribands and flowers all glowingly crowned ; 
But the Bursche, he loves not this riot. 
In the centre goes pale and quiet. 

Loud clash now the tankards, bright sparkles the wine, 
"Drink out, and again drink, dear brother mine !" 
" With the farewell-wine there outfloweth, 
What so deep in my heart now gloweth." 



OF THE STUDENT. 203 

The very last house which they go by — 

A maiden looks down from the window so high ; 

Fain hides she her tearful gushes 

With wallflowers rich and sweet rose-bushes. 

The very last house that they go by 
The Bursche there lifteth up his eye ; 
Then sinks it, his pain betraying, — 
His hand on his heart now laying. 

" Sir Brother ! and hast thou then no bouquet 1 
See, flowers there are nodding: and waving so gay ! 
Hillo ! thou loveliest dear one, — 
Of thy nosegays now fling us here one !" 

' Ye Brothers ! what can that nosegay do 1 
I now have no loving Liebschen like you. 
In the sun it will droop and wither ; — 
The wind blow it hither and thither !' 

And farther and farther with clang and song ! 
And sadly listens that maiden long. 
" O, wo ! and the youth removeth, 
Whom only my heart still loveth. — 

" Here stand I, ah ! in my love profound, 
With roses and with wallflowers around — 
And he for whom all I would sever. 
He's gone — and gone for ever !" 

So marches he forth, and — " other cities, other maidens !" 

If the stranger suffer himself, by his hunger after fresh air, to 
be led away, in the days of a strong winter, to the hills above 
Heidelberg, how monotonous and wild appears to him there 
nature in her funeral robes. The mountains, the valleys, all 
wrapt in that white winding sheet, are silent. From a distance 
only comes a heavy sound, as the ice-covering of the Neckar is 
heaved and rifted by the combating flood that rushes beneath it. 
That feeling of solitude seizes him, and he follows the course of 
a small stream which will, however, conduct him again to the 
banks of the Neckar. The water, whose course he has followed, 



204 WINTER AMUSEMENTS 

has wonderfully wr-ought the leaves and the grass into fantasti- 
cal ice-forms; while, above him, hang from the rocks enormous 
icicles, glittering in the wintry light like crystal daggers. Again 
he finds himself by the mirror-like surface of the wintry flood, 
and behold ! the uniformity of nature has only enabled man to 
multiply his pleasures. A glad multitude here is full of Hfe and 
activity. With delight the eye follows the skilful skater, as he 
now, with wonderful rapidity flies right forward, now winds in 
graceful sweeps and circles through the human mass. He 
moves so freely and easily, that his art would appear quite desti- 
tute of art, did we not see the learner in his first attempts 
tumbling at every trial, till exhausted, he stands and watches, 
with envious eye, the evolutions of the practised student. The 
ice-field becomes every moment fuller and fuller, till the strongly 
congealed surface can scarcely support the hundreds which 
crowd upon it. And there comes a troop of blooming ladies, 
hastening down the steep bank of the Neckar. They descend 
the narrow path, slippery with frozen snow, cautiously, and a 
troop of their worshippers fly to receive them, place them 
triumphantly jn the chair-sledges, and pushing them before 
them, vie with each other in sending them, with flying speed, 
over the crystal ice-plain far away. 

Nothing can well make so vivid an impression on the 
foreigner, especially on the Englishman, as the sledging proces- 
sions, which, as soon as the snow is trodden hard enough to 
bear, may be daily seen issuing from Heidelberg. Sometimes 
we see individual sledges, which are of striking appearance, 
gliding rapidly through the streets ; then greater sledge-parties, 
which the students make amongst themselves, or in association 
with some of the inhabitants. A troop of fore-riders, with the 
thundering cracks of their heavy whips, announce the approach 
of the sledge of the lady of honour, drawn by four horses. Then 
follows a long train of sledges, each with two horses, and each 
containing only one lady and gentleman. These sledge-parties 
afford much amusement to the students, and opportunities for 
many a frolic, and the Chores vie in outshining each other in 
ingeniously planned and splendidly achieved processions. In 



OF THE STUDENT. 205 

earlier times masked sledge-parlies were the order of the day; 
but, in consequence of many well-known and distinguished indi- 
viduals of the university city being represented, or rather mis- 
represented, they are now formally forbidden. Even the ladies, 
and the venerable heads of the senate, were not secure from the 
caricaturing of the students. Thus a stranger related to me, 
with great horror, that he had met a great company of ladies 
and gentlemen in sledges; all the ladies had wafted to him 
hand-kisses, and, horrihile dictu ! at the very next confectioner's, 
the ladies, with evident delight, had each drunk a glass of 
brandy ! 

We recollect a winter, some years ago, that was particularly 
distinguished by these pranks. In the first place, one of the 
Chores set out a sledge procession, which was imposing from 
the number of its sledges and the brilliance of its torches, which 
were carried by the whole assembled body of Boot-foxes. But 
this was speedily cast into the shade by another. The second 
Chore celebrated a Bauer's wedding, riding and driving in 
numerous sledges, in the Sunday attire of Bauers and Bauerinen, 
the country people and their wives, old and young, masked, 
into a neighbouring village, the sledge of the feigned bride and 
bridegroom being richly garlanded, and there, this fictitious 
pair — a couple of disguised students — were solemnly conducted 
through the ceremony of a marriage. A third Chore then, in 
order to strike out something more piquant, undertook a voyage 
by land. A number of Neckar boats were secured on sledges. 
They were all bravely rigged and equipped with sails, masts, 
and cordage, and sailors were in full activity, each crew zealous 
to maintain the honour of their ship. Some of them were seen 
with huge spy-glasses looking out ahead in the streets, to descry 
any dangerous rocks that might lie in their track, which might 
obstruct or fatally terminate their voyage. And behold ! all 
was suddenly at a stand — the sign of a Beer-Kneip was the 
rock on which they struck. All hands were now busy in trying 
to rescue the ship from this perilous situation, and the way they 
went to work was to blow it with a vast number of pairs of 
bellows, in order to send a very tempest of wind into the sails. 

18 



206 WINTER AMUSEMENTS 

The captain gave his commands, in masterly style, through his 
huge speaking-trumpet, and at length the vessel heaved off, and 
all was quickly again under sail, the whole body singing— 



THE GALLANT SHIP IS GOING. 

The gallant ship is going, 
The strong east wind is blowing, 
The far-off fading strand 
Shows no longer, 
Yet glows stronger 
Love unto my native land. 

Billows dark blue foaming. 
Tell me, are ye coming 
From that dear distant strand? 
Let them flow then, 
Since they go then 
Back unto my native land ! 

And as the billow breaks there. 
Love's heart and ear yet wakes there ; 
O speed to her away ! 

Kindly meet her, 

Kindly greet her] 

For of me you've much to say ! 

Seas from thee may tear me, 
But my thoughts still bear me 
To thee in that dear land ; 
What I sing now. 
Winds shall wing now, 
Till it reach that far-off strand. 

When high the waves are rearing. 
And wild the storm's careering, 
Then think I but on thee ; 

Who dost change not, 
Who dost range not. 
And no storms can trouble me ! 

All the songs I yet may sing thee. 
Other, nearer winds shall wing thee. 



OF THE STUDENT. 207 

Soon the port will lie in view ; 

These I'll sing thee, 

These I'll bring thee, 
And with them a heart that's true ! 

Another winter the luxury of this amusement had advanced 
so far that, from beginning at first with one horse, the students 
had now arrived at having from six to eight in each sledge, and 
the academical senate felt itself called upon to put a stop to 
this extravagant proceeding. It forbade them in future to 
sledge with so many horses. What a set-out was seen the 
next day ! An old superannuated hack was harnessed to the 
most miserable sledge that the city could furnish, and dragged 
it along with the last remains of his strength. In this neat 
equipage were packed together a dozen students, almost upon 
one another's shoulders ; and if the wretched beast, scarcely 

capable of putting one foot bo^o«<J annthav, wag d'lapQsed tcx- 

stand still, he was urged to further exertion by a horribly ugly, 
humpbacked, and limping ostler, going before him, and holding 
before his nose a most fragrant and ravishing lock of hay. At 
length they reached the first inn, where they called for a chop- 
pin of beer, had it divided into twelve glasses, and thus, with 
about a spoonful each, attempted to quench their thirst. Here 
they were encountered by the inexorable beadle, or poodle, as 
they style him, and commanded to withdraw so flagrant a 
satire on the worshipful senate's decree. On the following day 
a modest sledge was drawn slowly through the street where 
this stern enforcer of academical laws resided, in which sate 
a poodle, whose mouth a student held close with his hand, 
while another offered him a crown dollar. Not content with 
this significant emblem, which held up the official poodle to sus- 
picion, as though he too might have his mouth stopped by a 
sufficient motive, in the evening came a crowd of boys, follow- 
ing, in wonder, two students, who, to avoid falling under the 
stringent restrictions of the senate, had adopted a new mode 
of sledging. One lay down on his back sledgeways, and being 
drawn to some distance, by his legs, by his companion ; then 
arose, and drew his comrade in the same fashion, the whole 



208 WINTER AMUSEMENTS. 

being attended by a train of torches, so that all the world might 
see it. But enough of these mad pranks ; these were in past 
times. The sons of the Muses are now contented to distinguish 
their sledging-parties by their numbers rather than their extrava- 
gance, and instead of writhing under senatorial restraints, put 
on themselves, the pleasant restraint of reason and good taste, 
and furnishing a holiday spectacle to the city, enjoy themselves 
a day of social hilarity. 

We have stated that after dinner the student seeks his coffee- 
house, and is not ashamed with a billiard party or with a game 
of cards to kill an hour or two. The last amusement particu- 
larly will many of them only too passionately pursue; and 
indeed Play, at the bank, as in Wiesbaden, or Baden-Baden, 
whither they make excursions, has plunged many of them 
already into great trouble. The student has invented many 
games at cards, which are played, partly for money, partly for 
beer, and bear peculiar names, as Cerevies, Pereat, 8chlauch, 
etc. When the student has in the evening visited his kneip, 
whither we will presently join him, he has then brought his day's 
work famously to a close, and the reader will join in the chorus 
when he sings— 

Thus we students,— you may see so, — 

Daily fun-full, blithe, uproarious, 
Burschen ever, could it be so ! 

For the Bursche is ever glorious ! 



CHAPTER XIL 



THE student's EVENING PARTY, WITH ALL ITS CONVERSATIONS, 
STORIES, DISCUSSIONS, SONGS, AND CUSTOMS. 



My spirit with pleasure now fain would I fill, 
And blithe little images gather at will : 
Understand — all poetic — I'm young but the while, 
And must actively study the humorous style. 

Renommist of Zacharice. 



At the time from which we seek to borrow these pictures of 
student Ufe, there lived in Heidelberg the young musician 
Hoffmann. He had taken refuge in Ruperto-Carolo from the 
petty intrigues of the theatrical world, in which occupying a 
place in the orchestra, he had moved long enough in a neigh- 
bouring greater city to become thoroughly weary of it. His 
creative spirit, his glowing fancy, a certain poetical style, 
marked him out and gave promise that he would one day 
enrich that noble art of music, into whose depths he strove 
enthusiastically to penetrate, with no ordinary performances. 
The means only had been wanting to ripen in him, taking, as 
he did, the most lively interest in every artistical and scientific 
pursuit, to the most beautiful developement, the rich abundance 
of his talents. How could it then be otherwise than that he 
should now find himself so happy in the midst of the congenial 
life and movement of that university city, and in the enjoyment 
of its natural beauties ; that he should be transported to find so 

18* 



210 THE STUDENT'S 

many points of agreement between himself and the student 
youth. He felt the truth of Goethe's words : — " This acade- 
mical life, even if we cannot boast ourselves of having partaken 
of its peculiar diligence, yet affords incalculable advantages for 
every species of accomplishment, since we are perpetually sur- 
rounded by men who either possess knowledge, or seek it, so 
iha-t in such an atmosphere, even while ourselves are uncon- 
scious of it, we draw actual nourishment." — Walirheit und 
Dichtung. 

The amiability of the young Hoffmann, and his social talents, 
soon gathered a circle of friends around him, and now they all 
came together to celebrate joyfully his birthday. His invita- 
tions, which he clad in various forms of doggerel rhyme, having 
been sent round, were received with gladness, since every one 
felt that he had never known ennui in the house of Madame H., 
No. 9, since Hoffmann had resided there. 

The room itself was of so handsome a size; the platform 
which raised it in one part, gave it a peculiar aspect, and on 
this elevation he was accustomed to solace himself with his 
solitary music. It also afforded Hoffmann a particular pleasure 
to preserve all memorials of friendship and pleasant times care- 
fully, and to decorate his room with them. Thus, therefore, 
many such things as masks, bouquets, ribands, and sketches 
made by himself and by his friends, tastefully adorned the 
room. In a word, the apartment was so agreeable, that every 
one speedily felt himself at home in it. The tea-table was 
ready set out, the pipes filled, and a cheerful fire flickered in 
the stove, round which the already arrived guests had grouped 
themselves, and heard with pleasure the dismal northeast wind 
whistle and roar without. 

The reader has already been made acquainted with the 
student Freisleben, and with Eckhard likewise, under the name 
of the Friend. We shall therefore only remark, that they and 
the greater number of the other guests had appeared in their 
morning-gowns; we restrain ourselves from describing their 
exteriors farther, lest we should fall under the suspicion that 
we have in our eye actual and particular persons. 



EVENING PARTY. 211 

Freisleben was in his behaviour grave, and somewhat intro- 
verted, especially in large companies ; but he became, amongst 
famiUar friends, especially when he was upon favourite sub- 
jects, open and lively. His views of life were serious ; and he 
was accustomed to conceal them diligently from the eyes of 
others, and if any sought to look into him a little more than 
was agreeable, he would sometimes set on and chatter a good 
deal of mystifying nonsense. What others had no conception 
of, either in him or concerning him, his familiar friends, how- 
ever, knew right well, amongst whom was Hoffmann. They 
knew that under his quiet exterior, lay hidden a mind pecuharly 
alive to all that was good and beautiful ; yea, that his outward 
coldness was at the greatest in the very moment that his spirit 
was the most deeply stirred. If he hated or loved any one, 
that knew he very ill to conceal. For the rest, he was tole- 
rably firm in his principles, and knew how at the right time to 
act for himself and his friends; and his failing was only in 
the time of inactivity a too great weakness of resolve, and a 
certain romantic turn of thought, which in the company of 
amiable ladies brought his peace too easily into danger. He 
had pursued the study of medicine by no means with a one- 
sided view. 

His neighbour, the Herr von Kronen, a native of H , 

was to a certain degree, his opposite ; and yet the two agreed 
right well together. Kronen had something formal and re- 
served in his disposition, without being unfriendly. He carried 
himself with secure tact in all society, and his sagacity enabled 
him to see through every one, and treat them aright, without seem- 
ing for that purpose in the least to have altered his own behaviour. 
He was far from troubling himself about the approbation of 
others, and there were very few people of whose good opinion 
he was desirous. He was a searching inquirer, and permitted no 
impression to fix itself upon his mind till his understanding had 
examined it on all sides. He was cautious in his judgment, 
and was thoroughly candid towards every sufficiently intimate 
acquaintance. He had met with many bitter experiences in 
life, and was once cruelly deceived by a lady. Thence origi- 
nated his dislike of all women, which, however, he gratified by 



212 THE STUDENT'S 

making court to them all, and turning the most foolish of them 
into ridicule. On this head he came often into contention 
with Freisleben, who, on his side, ranked women very high, 
and had a great opinion of their general worth. His favourite 
study was history ; and he had obvious talents for a good diplo- 
matist. 

On the contrary, Eckhard was a jurist, good, true, honest, 
and had a practical look. He was always joyous, and never 
averse to the enjoyments of life. He stood freely and firmly 
by his friends, especially when it came to a duel. His failing 
was an all too-great Pfalzish bluntness. He promised one day 
to become a right able man of business. 

This was the company which had seated itself round the 
stove, and waited the arrival of the rest. They entertained 
themselves with scientific subjects, and had got down so deep 
into them, that they scarcely noticed how two new guests came 
rattling up the steps. With much bustle and noise appeared 
now the Jurist Enderlin, and the student of medicine Pittschaft, 
whom at first it was not very easy to recognise, so famously 
had he wrapped himself in coats, morning coats, cloaks, and 
fur cap, against the cold. 

As to Enderlin, every one knew that he was a good, incon- 
siderate fellow, who was constantly merry even almost to dis- 
sipation ; with a piercing voice and a Pomeranian gibberish of 
a dialect ; was perpetually disputing, and only too ready to rush 
into a quarrel. His study, jurisprudence, occasioned him no 
sleepless nights. 

Enderlin-. — Good evening, gentlemen ! I have the honour 
to present to you the great physician from Petersburg. I must 
beseech you to help me to free him from some of the ballast 
that he has loaded himself with, lest the disrespectful wind 
should so hurry his slow and reverend steps that he might have 
been taken for a locomotive engine. 

Eckhard now assisted Enderlin to wind their friend out of 
his wrappers, as an onion is stripped peel after peel. Rind 
after rind was abstracted, till it was feared that nothing at all 
would be left. But the fear was vain, for what of Pittschaft 
finally was rolled out, it required no microscope to discover. 



EVENING PARTY. 213 

Pittschaft far exceeded his friend in good nature, and was 
accustomed often to become his joke. Yet he was one of the 
few, who, although they often become the object of much mer- 
riment and laughter, yet never sink in the liking and respect of 
their friends thereby. New schemes and plans were continually 
running through his head, and his especial pleasure was to 
reconcile again to each other, friends between whom any 
distance or misunderstanding had arisen. He treated all matters 
with great importance ; had many especial friends ; and de- 
cided upon things even when he knew very little about them, 
in the most learned manner. Wavering in his opinions, he fol- 
lowed willingly the counsel of his friends, and with as good will 
gave counsel to others, and that even without ever being asked. 
It often sorely troubled him that, though he had always the 
very best intentions, he seldom could bring to bear what he 
attempted, yet he soon comforted himself again, through the 
natural and acquired endowments and talents which he was 
conscious of possessing. 

Hoffmann. — Where then have you left our Briton, who is 
seldom so dilatory when a cup of tea is in question ? 

Pittschaft. — He is so busy now studying the art of smoking 
that he is gone to a bookseller's to purchase a compendium 
upon it. 

EcKHARD. — How do you like our new protege, Mr. Travel- 
ler, then ? 

Pittschaft. — O, that is a regularly clever fellow. He seems 
so very desirous to strike up a friendship with me. We have 
already exchanged our views upon many weighty matters. 

Hoffmann. — Without doubt thou hast been the only winner 
by the exchange, for the Englishman is a really amiable fellow. 
He takes a much more ready interest in every thing than his 
countrymen are wont to do ; and he pleases us especially in 
this, that he knows how to value what is foreign ; that he does 
not, as his countrymen commonly do, estimate the worth of a 
thing entirely by its resemblance, or dissimilarity to what is 
English. He has a sound judgment, and puts his questions in 
that manner, that one has a pleasure in answering them. 



214 THE STUDENT'S 

Vox Kronen. — Yes, I wo'nt have the English inveighed 
against. They are an able people, of good kernel, and one 
must pardon them their singularities. 

Hoffmann. — Only it is a pity that the taste for music is 
nearly lost to them. I have often been vexed with it. When 
they admire a musical performance, it generally happens that 
it is only because it is by some celebrated master. 

EcKHARD. — They must be excused in many cases, because 
they are so completely the slaves of ceremonial ; but if they 
only come avv^hile amongst us, they soon can unlearn that, 
and become in society as free a people as they are already a 
political one. 

Enderlin. — They are famous fellows these English, and box 
like the devil. Nothing would give me so much pleasure as to 
have a round with one of them for once. We would see, 
however, whether I could not upset him with my Pomerlandish 
head. 

Freisleben. — I have made the acquaintance of many of the 
Britons, whose society afforded me a genuine pleasure. Their 
noble independence, the cool courage, the practical eye, their 
love of freedom, their straightforwardness, make them worthy 
of esteem, although one sometimes sees these shining qualities 
disfigured by egotism and indifference. Of the women, I will 
not speak. " On the Rhine, are the ladies very line." " In 
Saxony also, the lovely maidens grow." That is all very 
good ; but in England, I believe, were I there, I should fall in 
love at least once every day. 

VoN Kronen. — Ah ! now we're off on the high road to senti- 
mentality! It will not be long before he will give it you line 
and verse — " how man can only be ennobled by intercourse 
with most-to-be-adored woman." He will sing you " the joys 
of the beloved ;" " the noble resolves, which out of an heart," 
etc. etc., and other such nonsense. No, these women are 
wicked creatures, that play with us, as Master Flea in Hoffmann 
says — as the cat with the mouse. But when thou hast learned 
to reverse that play, then art thou the true master. Recollect 
what Lichtenberg says, — The expressions — " to give a heart," 



EVENING PARTY. 



215 



" to give favour," are poetical expressions. Maidens don't give 
their hearts away, they sell them for money, or honour, or they 
exchange them for others, in which exchange they either have, 
or fancy they have, the advantage. 

Freisleben. — He who honoureth not woman, and woman's 
mind to 

VoN Kronen. — Phoh ! cease all that. If thou dost not give 
over I shall run into the street that the wind may blow the stuff 
out of my ears. This is the consequence of thy associating so 
much of late with that Krusenstern, who makes such an ever- 
lasting sentimental face, like a goose that has had the feathers 
plucked out of its living body. They should stuff him with 
Indian corn, and hang him in the smoke, that they might grow 
him a good liver, with its appendage, a gall-bladder. 

Freisleben. — Thou judgest to-day, contrary to thy wont, 
rashly upon my friend. Thy judgment is false and unjust ; but 
that arises from thy knowing his history. The poor fellow is 
deeply to be pitied. 

PiTTScHAFT. — Freislebcn, let us hear the story. We are all 
curious ; and thou knowest it will remain amongst us friends. 

Hoffmann. — See there ! At length appears Mr. Traveller ! 
Good evening. Take off your things. Seat yourself by the 
stove : here is a pipe, and here the Fidibus. 

Mr. Traveller. — Best thanks ! Ha, it is savagely cold 
without ; but here, thank God, it is warm and comfortable. 
But I have disturbed the gentlemen ! 

Hoffmann. — Not at all. Freisleben is about to tell the story 
of an unfortunate student. I fancy you would take an interest 
in it too. 

Mr. Traveller. — I am all ear. 



216 THE STUDENT'S 



STORY OF KRUSENSTERN AND AVENSLEBEN. 

Freisleben. — Krusenstern, whose pale and wasted figure you 
now see passing silently about, was not always so. Once he 
was one of the handsomest students that the walls of Ruperto- 
Carolo ever enclosed. Every endowment that honours man, 
adorned him ; that, even his envier must admit. Nature had 
richly crowned him with her gifts ; and the education he, sprung 

from one of the richest mercantile families of the city of N , 

enjoyed, had brought those gifts to their highest perfection ; but 
he had one shadow-side, and this was his choleric temperament; 
a failing sufficient to plunge him into ruin. Similar studies, 
similar sentiments united him in a strong bond of friendship with 
Von Avensleben, the only son of a house of ancient nobility. It 
was now in the year before his examination that he first saw 
and became acquainted with the sister of his friend ; a most 
amiable lady, who then resided some time with her parents in 
the city of Heidelberg. His manly nature, free from all rude- 
ness ; his attractive demeanour, which a fine feeling of propriety 
pervaded ; and his finished education, won him the heart of the 
damsel, and he testified to me that he had found in her that ideal 
which he had before continually sought in vain. I had the hap- 
piness to know the amiable family of the young lady, and recall 
with a melancholy joy the time which I spent amongst these 
good, and then so happy, people. 

The widow Von Avensleben was as much distinguished for 
her- high accomplishment as for her most unassuming disposi- 
tion. She was well acquainted with the master works of Ger- 
man and foreign literature ; and her knowledge of the world, 
and her nice tact, gave to her conversation a peculiar charm. 
She embraced her children in her innermost heart, her constant 
care was to smooth out every slighest trace of discord between 
them ; and if she had a failing, it was her too great indulgence 
of them. 



EVENING PARTY. 217 

Amalia was the eldest daughter. She might be compared to 
one of those noble metals, which, because not vainly glittering 
on the surface, escape the eyes of ordinary men : but the noble 
ore conceals not its peculiar qualities from the knowing eye, 
which the more he observes, the more beautifully they discover 
themselves, and satisfy him that the pure metal requires no fur- 
ther refinement. In persona] beauty inferior to her sister, the 
maiden had earlier advanced to a reflection upon herself and 
others, and her clear understanding enabled her to arrive at 
noble and free views of the true worth of outward things, and 
of her own mind. Thus she had early demonstrated that she 
was capable of the greatest sacrifices for her friends — for her 
friends, who were chosen after mature consideration, and in 
which choice womanly sagacity and fine feeling were her 
guides. Her youthful timidity gave place, as she first became 
conscious of her worth, to a noble assurance. She judged others 
with indulgence, but hesitated not to speak out what was an 
acknowledged truth, even when that truth was not flattering to 
another. Thus showed she herself constantly as a noble and 
true soul, which one must continue to love more and more. 

The little Maria was not so circumspect as her sister. As a 
lovely butterfly, she fluttered from flower to flower, extracting 
from each the best honey. Her vivacity led her to embrace 
whatever was good and beautiful with heartiness ; but exactly 
because every thing is not good and beautiful, was indispensable 
to her a change of the flowers from which she drew nourish- 
ment. She knew how to show herself friendly and full of kind- 
ness to all who felt themselves compelled to pay to her the tribute 
of her love-worthiness, without tyrannically abusing her magic 
wand. But, when she sometimes saw that the lovely and bril- 
liant side of a thing had too much biassed her frequently too 
predominant feeling ; when she found herself deceived in and 
discontented with what she had, in her too enthusiastic fancy, 
taken up, would she painfully lament over the dark side of life. 
Certainly, every one who had once seen the little elegant being, 
as she charmingly and sweetly moved in society ; every one 
who had glanced on her fine and noble features, and into her 

19 



218 THE STUDENT'S 

speaking eyes, must have loved her ; and when she, moreover, 
sung with the clear metal of her voice, one of the beautiful 
songs which my friend accompanied on the piano, every one 
was enchanted. 

Thus were they happy people ; and the rapidly approaching 
completion of his university life, his rare acquirements, and the 
protection of men high in the government, gave my friend the 
promise of a near and a yet happier future. Ah ! who could 
have thought that the peace of this happy family should be so 
horribly destroyed ; that this lovely bond should have been so 
cruelly rent asunder ! An inconsiderate action of the young 
Von Avensleben converted this paradise into a hell. 

He had accidentally received intelligence of a serenade which 
Krusenstern proposed to give to his loved one. This excited 
him to an ill-considered joke. As his friend glided near to the 
house with the nocturnal music, and standing near in the shade 
of another house, dehghted himself with the imagination of the 
joy that his attention would give to Maria, Avensleben showed 
himself at the window, clad in a woman's night-dress, and threw 
a hand-kiss to Krusenstern. The wrath of Krusenstern at this 
foolish exposure of his lady to the ridicule of the musicians was 
furious, and a challenge to a duel with pistols was the conse- 
quence. No representations were able to bring him from this 
terrible resolve ; and a journey which the family of Von Avens- 
leben made, in order to spend a few days on a neighbouring 
estate of theirs, afforded the sundered friends an opportunity to 
compass their unhappy intention. 

They drew in the early morning to the appointed place. Kru- 
senstern with his seconds was first there — a spot well known to 
travellers by the name of the Engelswiese, or Angel's Meadow, 
lying up in the woods above the Neckar, on the opposite side 
to the city, and showing its pleasant green area belted in 
by the forest, to wanderers about the castle, though invisible to 
the valley below. He walked in silence to and fro, and gazed 
down upon the city, which lay gloriously illuminated by the 
morning sun. He could even distinguish the house where he 
had enjoyed the purest and deepest pleasures ; he thought 



EVENING PARTY. 219 

over the happy past; and anxious forebodings of a dark and 
perdition-blasted future rose up before him. The curtain was 
only too soon to be drawn aside, which his eyes were not yet 
permitted to penetrate. His antagonist appeared on the ground ; 
the old resentment drove out every softer emotion ; the seconds 
measured out the distance, the pistols were loaded, the word 
given — Von Krusenstern shot — but it became night before his 
eyes, as in the same moment he saw his antagonist spring on 
high, and then fall to the ground. He had received his death- 
wound. 

Who shall describe the situation in which poor Krusenstern 
found himself! — who the misery of the friends of both ! He was 
immovable to all persuasions to flight, and was committed by 
the magistrate to whom he had surrendered himself of his own 
accord, to the university prison until further inquiry. 

The family of the fallen youth were immediately written to, 
to tell them, that, on account of some degree of indisposition, he 
would not be able immediately to follow them, as had been 
agreed, and a friend of the house undertook the sorrowful task of 
opening to them the dreadful intelligence. But the most terrible 
part was yet to come. Von Avensleben was highly beloved 
amongst the students, and it was resolved to attend his funeral 
with a torch-train ; and that the wretched prisoner, who, during 
all this time had sate brooding in a stupor of grief without listen- 
ing to any one, might not perceive it, they determined that the 
funeral should take place a day earlier than usual. I was with 
the unhappy man on this eventful evening, endeavouring to com- 
fort him, and to withdraw his thoughts from the dark pictures 
of his imagination. The shutters of the little room were closed, 
but a tone of the dismal mourning music struck his ear as the 
funeral train passed by the end of the street, along the Haupt- 
strasse, or High Street, of the city. "My friend! they bear 
him to the grave I" cried he with a terrible voice, and rushed to 
the window. I endeavoured to hold him back, but he tore him- 
self loose from my grasp with giant strength, and bursting open 
the shutters struck his head against the iron grating. There 
flared the sullen glow of the torches, and the tone of the trum- 



220 THE STUDENT'S 

pets quivered through my vitals. With ghostUke, terrible, and 
distorted countenance, he gazed after the melancholy train ; — 
" I — I have murdered him ! the good, the true friend ! There ! 
I see him with the bleeding wound, crying, ' Wo !' over me ! 
Oh God ! Oh God ! thou has cast me off! Maria ! Maria ! what 
have I done to thee ! Seize me, ye spirits of hell ! Tear me 
away from the pure angel-form !" So he raved on, till, exhausted, 
he fell back into the chamber. 

He passed the night in the most horrible delirium ; and for 
many days it was not dared to leave him a moment alone, lest 
he should effect his desperate endeavours at self-destruction. 

But if the train left horrors behind it, it met yet still greater 
as it approached the end of the city. The letter had reached 
the family of Von Avensleben, but the friend had missed the 
sisters in the darkness of the night, as they hastened back to 
town to attend their sick brother. 

" Whom do they bury there ?' asked the trembling Maria, 
as their carriage, passing in at the Mannheim gate, was de- 
tained by the mourning procession. 

" The student who was shot in the duel," answered an old 
man, who did not know the young lady—" the Herr Von 
Avensleben." 

The cry of horror and misery in the carriage, as it wheeling 
round again rolled away through the dark night, I attempt not 
to describe. Maria only too soon became aware of the whole 
terrible secret. She fell into a long and severe nervous fever, 
and only arose from her sick bed to die a more weary death 
from the sure poison of incurable sorrow. She had written to 
her former lover a most moving letter, which assured him of 
her pardon, and in which she exhorted him to listen to the 
consolations of religion. 

The kind girl had not desired the return of the little admo- 
nitory tokens of happy days ; she had also retained his gifts, 
memorials of a pure and beautiful love, which a dreadful fate 
had destroyed. 

Krusenstern, who spent two years in prison, is now come 
back again, and — you have seen him. 



EVENING PARTY. 221 

All had listened in silence to the recital. Of some of them, 
the pipes were gone out, — others blew powerfully clouds of 
smoke around them. 

" Poor Krusenstern !" said Eckhard. " I revoke all that I 
have said against him." 

" A most sorrowful history »" said the Englishman. 

" And false notions about women is the cause of all," said 
Von Kronen. " The poor Krusenstern would never have gone 
so far if he had not regarded his love in too romantic a light. 
This mischief would never have happened if he had only read 
my favourite author, Lichtenberg, where he says, — ' That the 
irresistible power of love can raise us, through its object, to 
the highest pitch of happiness, or plunge us down to the lowest 
gulf of misery, is poetical nonsense of young people, whose 
heads are yet only growing ; which have no voices in the 
counsels of men ; and for the most part are so constructed that 
they are never likely to have any.' " 

" We must have no more such stories," said Hoffmann, " or 
the pleasures of the whole evening will be destroyed. The tea 
is ready ; take your places, gentlemen." 

Mr. Traveller, tasting the tea, pronounced it capital; and 
declared his astonishment that the Frau Philistine could pre- 
pare so excellent a beverage ; but the host gave him to under- 
stand that he had brewed it himself. " It is my favourite 
beverage," said he, " and when I spend the evening at home, 
serves me for supper ; or I cook a beefsteak and potatoes in the 
little machine which stands yonder, and which is a good deal 
in vogue amongst the students." 

" So, so !" said the Englishman, "that is very sensible now." 

While they thus chatted, the House-besom entered, and set 
upon the table a handsomely-shaped tart, which is called in this 
part of the country, a Radonen-cake, as a gift from Herr 
Schiitz, in whose house Hoffmann was familiar. The cake 
was admired, and the host addressed himself to cut it up scien- 
tifically, when — zounds ! the whole cake was nothing but a 
snow-ball, which had been made in a proper mould, and which 
had received the requisite colour from an ingenious powdering 

19* 



222 THE STUDENT'S 

with brick-dust. " So shall thou return to the water out of 
which thou wert made," exclaimed Hoffmann, as the whole 
company laughed heartily at the deception. 

When tea was over, the company divided itself. The Eng- 
lishman and Von Kronen plunged deep into a game at chess. 
The other four played at whist, and Hoffmann, as master of the 
house, did the honours, wandering first to this and then to that 
table. The whist party continued long ; after the first rubber 
they obliged the host to join then, and so spun out their play to 
the fifth rubber. In the meantime the two others had termi- 
nated their game at chess, and seated themselves by the stove, 
smoking their pipes, and chatting over this and that. 

" Has your pipe a good chair-way ?" asked the Englishman, 
whom this student expression amused. 

" It goes like a flute," answered the other. " Why you have 
made yourself master of the art of smoking, even to its very 
technical terms." 

" You can scarcely believe," said Mr. Traveller, " how much 
I am interested in every thing that is German, of which smoking 
is one thing, and especially in all that is connected with its 
university system. So long as I continued in England, I did 
not trouble myself much on this head, but now I use all the en- 
deavours I can to acquaint myself with the present constitution 
of your universities. You must recommend to me a book in 
which I can find some notice of the origin of universities in 
general, and of the earher fortunes of that of Heidelberg in 
particular." 

" The best book on that subject," said Enderlin, who had 
come from the whist-table, " is Von Kronen himself. He can 
give you such a lecture upon it, that all the rats in the house 
shall run out; for which reason they wished to appoint him, in 
Westphalia, to the office of chamber-hunter. Tres faciunt 
collegium, so let us erect him a cathedra, whence he may pro- 
nounce his lecture." 

These arrangements were speedily made. In the meantime 
Von Kronen had put his visage into a very learned form, and 
begun : — 



EVENING PARTY. 223 



SKETCH OP THE HISTOKY OF UNIVERSITIES, 

Gentlemen, — Let us, as true sons of Minerva, exhibit an 
agreeable contrast to those people yonder, who have given 
themselves up to the burthen of play. May the honey of my 
words drop into your ears, and turn you into true disciples of 
wisdom. But the subject of our present lecture is the earlier 
fortunes of universities in general, and in particular of Ruperto- 
Carolo, that ancient fountain of knowledge, out of which we 
have drunk deep draughts. 

" The sup of wisdom," interrupted Enderlin, " that we have 
eaten with a spoon, is a more beautiful metaphor — " 

I warn the indiscreet hearer — said the pro tempore professor, 
Von Kronen, sternly frowning, — of Tit. ii. section 27, of the 
academical laws, where it is declared that — ' insults towards 
persons who are placed in authority in the university, or towards 
the persons connected with them, shall be strictly punished ; if 
they are offered from revenge, so must the punishment be made 
the sharper, and, according to circumstance, may be even 
penally amerced.' x^fter this, let no man insult or interrupt. 

Our European universities, as they at present exist, are the 
production of a comparatively late period, since, though we find 
institutions resembling them in very early times, yet they were 
essentially and wholly different to ours. History shows us how, 
through the continually progressing culture of a people from 
age to age, institutions for the fostering and diffusion of know- 
ledge formed themselves; and thus we find, at first, the so- 
called Priest-Schools in Egypt, Persia, India, and amongst the 
Hebrews ; amongst the Celtic people the cloister-like unions of 
the Druids, which in caves and solitary woods, imparted to the 
most distinguished of the youth oral instruction. 

The business of teaching was confined to expounding of the 
laws, of the holy books, and so forth, and was communicated in 
verses. The educational institutions of the Greeks were of a 



224 THE STUDENT'S 

higher grade. The first and most celebrated High School was 
Athens ; which also in still later times, maintained a high rank 
in this respect. We must here only remind ourselves of 
the gardens of Plato, in which he imparted his instructions in 
philosophy. The Cynosarges, where Antisthenes taught; the 
Poikyle or Stoa, where Zeno assembled his disciples; the 
gardens of Epicurus, and afterwards of the museum at Alex- 
andria. Philosophy was the great science : as to them the 
Faculties, as well as the so-called Bread sciences (sciences 
made a trade or profession of) were totally unknown. The 
Greeks also possessed public libraries, as those at Alexandria 
and Pergamus. The educational institutions of the Romans 
were modelled essentially upon those of the Greeks, and en- 
joyed the most extensive influence from the 607th year after 
the building of Rome ; and the highest veneration was shown 
to professors from Greece, who taught in them philosophy and 
the arts. The Romans also held it indispensable to visit and 
study in the schools of Greece, and their young nobility espe- 
cially resorted to Athens, Rhodes, Alexandria, etc. The Ro- 
mans, moreover, were not acquainted with the division into 
Faculties, and every man of standing studied the liberal arts — 
studia humaniora — in their whole compass ; and libraries, and 
collections of works and remains of art, were much more nu- 
merously and richly at their command. The study of philo- 
sophy was not the less zealously prosecuted than in Greece ; 
but the grammatical philosophy of the Greek and Roman 
tongues, combined with rhetoric and poetry, were the highest 
objects of education. The continually increasing numbers of 
the immigrating Grecian professors, led to the founding of 
many other schools in Italy. Amongst the most important was 
the Athenseum, founded by the Emperor Hadrian, afterwards 
called ihe Schola Romana ; those of the capitol, and other 
temples. Vespasian was the first to establish public professors 
of political science with fixed salaries. Antoninus Pius raised 
the so-called imperial schools, as did Valentinian those of Rome 
generally, to the higher distinction, by a thorough and salutary 
reform. Athens, however, still continued to maintain the high- 



EVENING PARTY. 225 

est reputation, down to the tenth century, to which people 
flocked from all countries. 

With the fall of Rome fell also the schools, and all the higher 
institutions for the diffusion of knowledge ; but with the spread 
of Christianity they began again to rear their heads, but with a 
very essentially different character. Their tendency was pre- 
eminently theological, — as the theological seminaries, and the 
catechetical schools, especially at Alexandria, testify ; which 
latter maintained the highest celebrity, from the second to the 
fourteenth century. This theological tendency manifested itself 
still more in the episcopal and cathedral schools, where indeed 
the so-called Seven Free Arts were also taught, but in the most 
miserable and imperfect manner. Theology, growing every 
day more sterile, yet exercised a perpetually increasing lordship 
over philosophy, and formally subjected it to tutelage, as the 
monastic schools from the sixth to the eleventh century most 
strikingly show. These institutions sought the immediate pro- 
tection of the hierarchy, and the result of their labours was 
the School Philosophy. 

Charlemagne and his friend Alcuin again first comprehended 
the idea of a general humane accomplishment. The former 
founded the Schola Palatii, for princes and young men of 
condition, and Alfred in England established similar ones there ; 
but with the death of these remarkable men, all seemed to fall 
back again into the old track. These cloister schools, however, 
in the ninth century, merged into the so-called Faculty Schools; 
which again in the twefth and thirteenth centuries lived anew 
as Universities. Thus, in consequence of the schools of Charle- 
magne and Alfred, a free spirit of scientific inquiry evolved 
itself from the cloister schools, which found a corroborating 
co-operation in the Rabbinical schools of North Africa, in 
Spain, and France, and still more, in the schools of the Arabs. 
There, such Faculty Schools stood forth with especial promi- 
nence; the one for medical science at Salerno; for jurispru- 
dence at Bologna, which possessed distinguished privileges as 
the gift of the Emperor Henry I. through the Auteniica of the 
year 1158. The scholastic theology soon separated itself from 



226 THE STUDENT'S 

the Aristotelian-Arabic Philosophy, and the seat of the latter 
became Paris, Amongst many precious privileges, which these 
three institutions received in consequence of the Autentica of 
Frederick I., that of Philip Augustus for Paris was the most 
remarkable. It freed it from the civil jurisdiction, and placed 
it under the jurisdiction of its own teachers. Paris was also 
the first university in which all branches of education were 
taught ; yet even there, still theology continued to be the promi- 
nent study, and none of the universities could confer all kinds 
of academical honours. So, doctors of theology could only be 
ci'eated in Paris ; of law, only in Bologna, and so on. As 
these schools now became actually universities, they ceased to 
bear the names of scholee, studia, studia generalia, and the 
name of universities was adopted, and has ever since continued 
in use. 

The teachers of the universities received originally no stipend 
from the state. Frederick II. paid to the teachers of the newly- 
founded university at Naples in 1224, the first fixed stipend. 
The great advantages of a university education becoming, by 
degrees, generally known, occasioned many cities, which saw 
these advantages, to endeavour to become university-cities them- 
selves, so that from the thirteenth century the number greatly 
increased. Universities were founded in Montpellier in 1220; 
in Orleans in 1312; and in Prague in 1348; the last in particular 
formed on the model of that of Paris. Independence of the 
state created, especially in Prague, a most beneficial freedom of 
• doctrine in the teachers, which was often directed against the 
prince, and often against the church, with the most distinguished 
consequences. 

We are once more conducted by the mention of Prague back 
to the universities of Germany, and it must be, in the first place, 
observed, that this university for a considerable period was, and 
continued to be, the only one. But as knowledge penetrated 
more and more into Germany, and especially as it was cherished 
and promoted by the princes, the want of such higher educa- 
tional institutions was more and more felt, and thus arose in the 
German territory, previous to the end of the fifteenth century, 



EVENING PARTY. 227 

fifteen universities, — of which Vienna was founded in 1365; 
Heidelberg in 1387; Cologne in 1388; Erfurt in 1392; Leipsic 
in 1409; Rostock in 1419; Freisburg in Breisgau in 1452; 
Greifswalde in 1456, 1472; Trier in 1454, 1472; Basle in 1460; 
Ingoldstadt in 1471; Tiibingen in 1477; Mayence in 1471. At 
the beginning of the sixteenth century arose Wittenberg in 
1502, and Frankfurt on the Oder in 1505; Marburg in 1527, the 
first Protestant university; Konigsberg in Prussia in 1544; 
Jena in 1554, 1557; Altdorfin 1675, 1678; Helmstadt 1575. 

At that period, however, the Protestant princes only could be 
justly praised for their care to provide able professors; the uni- 
versities which continued Catholic, or which were newly-founded 
by Catholic princes, as those of Dillingen in 1613; Paderborn 
in 1615; and Molsheim in 1618; were occupied by the Jesuits. 
In consequence of the unfortunate Thirty Years' War, many of 
these universities fell; many suffered much from the chances of 
war; and these circumstances incited neighbouring princes to 
found new universities. So arose the university at Giessen in 
1650; at Duisburg in 1655; at Kiel in 1665. The Elector 
Frederick III. of Brandenburg — King Frederick I. — changed 
in 1694 the Ritter School at Halle into a university. A general 
improvement of the instruction given in all the universities in 
this century is observable: but spite of all endeavours at improve- 
ment in this respect, the sciences all continued to be taught in a 
very unphilosophical manner, and in the Latin tongue. 

The necessary advance from this wretched state of things 
began with the eighteenth century, through the universally rest- 
less activity of the philosopher Leibnitz. Christian Wolf taught 
first in the spirit of Leibnitz and in the German tongue. George 
II. seconding the better spirit of the time, founded a new univer- 
sity at Gottingen in 1734; Margrave Frederick of Brandenburg- 
Anspach one at Erlangen in 1743; and a Catholic one arose 
through the Prince-Bishop of Dalberg in 1734 at Fulda, but was 
dissolved again in 1804. The good spirit continued to work on 
through the remaining half of the eighteenth century, and thus 
in 1760, Duke Frederick of Mecklenburg founded a university 
at Biitzow, which was in 1789 united to that of Rostock. The 



228 THE STUDENT'S 

Duke Karl Eugen of Wiirtemberg in 1770 founded that of Stutt- 
gardt, which was, however, again dissolved in 1794. Bonn 
also at that period received the foundation of its university. 
More recently was founded that at Landshut, whither the uni- 
versity of Ingoldstadt was removed in 1800, and again in 1827 
removed to Munich. Wittemberg ceased in 1816, being united 
to that of Halle; and in 1810 a new university was founded at 
Berlin. 

We have now, gentlemen, taken an historical glance at the 
German universities, and at their foundations, so far as is neces- 
sary. They were called forth by the ruling circumstances of 
the times, and established themselves now in this manner and 
now in that. But it is especially interesting to us to have seen 
that the university of Heidelberg was one of the earliest, and 
continues one of the first ; its rank no one will presume to con- 
test. She has raised her noble head amid all the storms of 
time, and no state revolutions or other political epochs could 
make her bend. Ruperto-Carolo shone like a morning sun on 
the horizon of scientific endeavour, and we now shall take with 
particular pleasure the opportunity 

" To invite the honourable listeners politely to partake of a 
modest supper ;" interrupted Hoffmann. " Thou mayst finish 
thy learned lecture another time." 

VoN Kronen. — Far be it from me to throw any obstruction 
in the way of so praiseworthy a proposition ; especially, as the 
favourite adage of our city of the Muses has always been — the 
utile dulci. 

Mr. Traveller. — So postpone we then the continuance of 
the discourse to a future day. 

PHRENOLOGY. 

The little collation was in the mean time brought up, and the 
company, under the conduct of the musical artist, made the most 
successful attacks on the ham and veal cutlet. The Gottingen 
sausage, moreover, an imitation of the renowned Sulzer, was as 
little spared as the potato-salad, and the scattered remains soon 



EVENING PARTY. 229 

alone marked the battle-field. A noble Rhine-wine recruited 
the muscles of the jaw, and loosed again the tongue of the brave 
combatants. The affairs of the day became the subject of dis- 
course, and occurrences in Hanover, which then appeared likely 
vitally to affect the interests of all Germany, were eagerly dis- 
cussed by all. Mr. Traveller, as the representative of England, 
stated the strong feeling which there prevailed against the King 
of Hanover, and so they came to talk of the prevailing views 
and theories in England, on many subjects, and Mr. Traveller 
speedily entangled himself in a discussion on Phrenology, which 
he endeavoured to defend. Freisleben, a determined opponent 
to the theory, immediately took up the subject zealously. 

Freisleben. — They are now signs on the skull that man will 
expound, formerly they were signs in the heaven. What un- 
pardonable presumption, from certain deviations from the regu- 
larity of the outer form, to infer an analogical change of the 
soul. A leap which, according to my opinion, is not less than 
from comets' tails to war. What presumption, from the body 
to seek to form conclusions upon the spirit, whose mode of con- 
nexion with it is to us totally unknown ! It strikes me exactly 
as if any one should infer or assert the possession of a fine sense 
of smell, from the existence of a huge nose, or, as dancing is a 
function of the foot, that he who has a great foot must be a 
capital dancer. 

Mr. Traveller. — -Throw the matter into ridicule as much 
as you please, but take along with you at the same time the 
evidences which experience furnishes. 

Freisleben. — These evidences have long been shown to evi- 
dence nothing, and it astonishes me that this doctrine of Gall 
and Spurzheim, this ephemeral structure, can find so much 
acceptance in England. 

Mr. Traveller. — I know the thing only by popular repre- 
sentations. But the principles which are herein derived from 
anatomy and physiology, to which Gall and Spurzheim have 
rendered much service, the grounds which pathology and com- 
parative anatomy also furnish, appear to me worthy of all atten- 
tion. 

20 



230 THE STUDENT'S 

PiTTSCHAFT. — That nobody denies ; but Gall having rendered^ 
essential service to the anatomy of the brain, by no means justi- 
fies his doctrine. 

Freisleben. — His theory must fall, when it is assailed a 
priori, or by experience. Above all things, unphilosophical, not 
to say ridiculous, is his distribution into twenty-seven senses. By 
what right has he only so many set forth ; and why is a boun- 
dary drawn here 1 

Mr. Traveller. — Though many things may be said against 
this distribution, yet it is often seen in life that an individual 
sense as marked out by Gall, is pre-eminently developed and 
frequently almost exclusively predominates ; I remind you of 
his five-sorts-of-memory sense. 

Freisleben. — Certainly. But what is the cause of this 1 Is 
it not to be sought rather in external influences, which especially 
develope this kind of memory ? And if we leave this out of 
view, then must we go still farther. So there is a painter who 
can paint only landscapes ; and I recollect in Matthisson's Re- 
miniscences, to have read of a Cretin in Berne, who could paint 
cats, and cats only, but them most excellently. How much far- 
ther must Gall's artistical faculty be subdivided, till it reaches 
down to the cat-painting faculty ! 

Mr. Traveller. — The artistical faculty is probably in this 
painter, but we must assume that it is prevented from unfolding 
itself in all directions. 

Freisleben. — But there you knock yourself down. Since, 
if we assume that there is no necessity for the faculty, which 
the external elevation of the skull indicates, to develope itself, 
then the whole pile of Phrenology tumbles to the ground. But 
does it develope itself, and is this acknowledged as necessary, 
what incalculable and horrible consequences must this have ! 
All moral responsibility ceases : the criminal escapes punish- 
ment, since he can show on his skull the iiTesistible murder- 
sense. But I will not pursue this farther, since, happily, we 
have nothing to fear from it. Scarcely in a single instance do 
the outer plates of the skull-bones correspond permanently with 
the inner ones, and therefore not with the brain. I call to your 



EVENING PARTY. 231 

recollection only the skulls of certain animals, in which, between 
the two skull-plates, is to be found a large hollow, as we, indeed, 
also find in man ; as, for instance, the hollow of the forehead — 
the frontal sinus — which is, in different individuals, very diffe- 
rently developed. Then again the most recent physiological 
experiments show, that in occurring injuries, they are not by 
any means of so much consequence in the external portion of 
the brain, in the hemisphere, but that it is exactly the inner por- 
tion which is of the most importance, and which also has a 
much more determinate shape. In injuries of the head too, 
cases have occurred, where whole spoonsful of the hemisphere 
of the brain have been taken out without the slightest diminution 
of the actively intellectual powers. Object not to me that the 
convolutions of the hemisphere of the brain have been particu- 
larly developed in distinguished men — here it was also the case 
with the inner portion: one part does not develope itself with- 
out the other. Object not that the anatomy of beasts gives no 
secure result, since if this is the case, how can phrenology itself 
dare to hope to give more certain judgments? The firm and 
immovable part — the form of the bones especially — is delusive : 
in the first place, since they have long acquired their form and 
consistency before every species of improvement of the im- 
provable creature takes place, which comes long after the com- 
plete fixidity ; and secondly, since this form depends so little 
upon our will, while the influence of external causes is so un- 
avoidable, and a single pressure or stroke can gradually work 
a change, whose progress no art is capable of restraining. 
Moreover, even could any thing be deduced from this, still the 
firm parts yet constitute but a certain and perpetually fixed pro- 
portion, a single and insignificant link in the chain of countless 
circumstances, which go to the formation of the human cha- 
racter. 

Mr. Traveller. — My God ! my head is in a whirligig with 
all this — with all this rapid German. 

Freisleben. — One must not allow one's-self to speak of the 
outer form of the head in which a free spirit dwells, as one 
would of a pumpkin ; as little must we calculate circumstances 



232 THE STUDENT'S 

which depend upon it, as we would calculate an eclipse. Others 
assert, with equal probability, that the character of a man lies 
in his countenance, whilst they appeal to the capability of 
drawing a conclusion on the whole from the indications of a 
part ; as others, supporting themselves on this sufficient ground, 
assert, that man must act as a machine. And to this class of 
reasoning belongs — " in a handsome body dwells a handsome 
soul." 



Ridicule majis hoc dictum, quam vere sestimo, 
Quando et formosos seepe inveni pessimos, 
Et turpi facie multos cognovi optimus. 

PhcBdrus. 



PiTTSCHAFT. — Ah, if wc could but first rightly understand the 
changes in the brain itself. But a great visible change in the 
brain may be a very little change for the soul, and vice versa. 
And how will people draw conclusions from the very vault of 
the brain? 

Mr. Traveller. — But, gentlemen, recollect how often phre- 
nologists, from the outward form of the skull, have drawn 
correct conclusions. Recollect the allocation of distinguished 
heads as they are to be seen in plaster in the English and 
German museums. 

Freisleben. — Yes, they have drawn some very neat con- 
clusions, but we know very well how that stands. The false 
conclusions have been carefully put out of sight ; and yet 
sufficient of them have come to the daylight to render the 
phrenologists ridiculous. They are, indeed, often still more 
innocent, the worthy demonstrators only seeing that which 
they knew very well before. Recollect also what a sagacious 
German naturalist says : — " The proof of the demonstration 
which the phrenologist makes is, in most cases, as superficial 
as the demonstration itself. Let a man eat a shovelful of salt, 
according to the prescription of Aristotle, with the person upon 
whose head and heart he makes so superficial a judgment, and 
he will then find what will become of his former judgment. 



EVENING PARTY. 233 

But to err is huaian, and that not exclusively, for it is sonae- 
limes the fate of angels." Talent, and the endowments of the 
spirit, generally have no signs in the solid portion of the head- 
To prove this, let the selected casts of thinking heads, and 
selected ones of fools and not-thinking men, be placed side by 
side; and not the head of the learned man, of a careful edu- 
cation, be placed in opposition to that of the worst specimen 
of the totally uneducated country booby. Bedlam is peopled 
with inhabitants, who, if they did not stand staring as if chilled 
into stone, or smiling at the stars, or listening to the song of the 
angels, or would blow out the dog-star, or stood trembling with 
folded arms, — if, in fact, they were not judged by these aberra- 
tions, but by the shape of their heads alone, would command 
the highest respect. Still less can we draw correct conclusions 
from the shape of the living head than from the bare skull itself 
A skilful artist, without exceeding the bounds of the probable, 
would be able to cast in wax a covering of muscles and skin 
for the head of any skeleton, and give it an expression which 
should possess any aspect that he pleased. And thus may the 
skull of a living person be, in reality, so covered with an irre- 
gular mass of muscular and cuticular integuments, as shall give 
an equally delusive effect. 

VoN Kronen — whose attention had become excited by this 
illustration' — here interposed. What an immeasurable leap from 
the exterior of the body to the interior of the soul ! Had we a 
sense which enabled us to discover the inner quality of bodies, 
yet would such a leap still be a daring one. It is a well esta- 
blished fact, that the instrument does not make the artist ; and 
many a one with a fork and a goosequill would make better 
sketches than another with an English case of instruments. 
Sound manly sense soon sees into this ; it is only the passion 
for innovation, and an idle sophistry, soothing itself with false 
hopes, which will not see it. If a ship-captain answered a 
fellow who offered himself to his service with enthusiasm— 
" Thy will is good, but, nevertheless, thou art of no use to me.. 
Thy shoulders are too narrow, and thou art too small altogether 
for the service," then must the good fellow probably put his 

20* 



334 THE STUDENT'S 

hand on his mouth ; but if the captain said, " Thou actest hke 
a worthy fellow, but I see by thy figure that thou constrainest 
thyself at this moment, and art a scamp in thy heart ;" in truth, 
such an address would, in any place, to the end of the world, 
be answered by any honest fellow with a box on the ear. 

Mr. Traveller. — You will make me in the end suspicious 
of the whole circle of physics, or otherwise I must beheve that 
you allow no place to the phrenologist amongst natural philo- 
sophers. 

Freislebeiv. — I permit him freely to class himself amongst 
the naturalists ; but he must attempt to take no greater rank 
amongst them than the soi-disant political prophet does amongst 
subtle statesmen. But one can by no means class the genuine 
natural philosopher and the phrenologist and physiognomist 
together. The first err often humanly, the others err con- 
tinually and monstrously. 

While this discussion had grown warm, amongst the others a 
lively conversation had arisen on recent literature. They gave 
their opinions on the recent English romances of Bulwer and 
Marryat, which then were the order of the day. They con- 
demned some of the later productions of the French. They 
contended for and against the influence of the young Germany ; 
criticised Gutzhow's newest romance ; and soon were upon a 
general theme, the different tendency of the public in England 
and Germany. There the preference for popular representa- 
tion ; the neglect of scientific reading, together with the very 
superficial school education ; here, on the contrary, reverence 
for science, and over-driven grasping after scientific things, and 
a passion to be learned, which especially shows itself repulsively 
in the ladies, when they are carried away into the scientific 
vortex; they bewailed the wretched mass of rubbish that was 
now read, and especially that the Germans by reading too much 
did themselves injuiy. That, in particular, in the schools the 
children were held more to learning by rote than to thinking ; 
at the same time thankfully acknowledging that it was sought 
with all diligence, to correct this error in the new Folks' 
Schools. " In England," says Freisleben, " one finds more 



EVENING PARTY. 335 

original character in company, and amongst the common 
people, as may be seen in the English writings. In Germany it 
is totally different. And if any one stumbles on an original dis- 
covery, how long it continues, till his discovery, and till he him- 
self become known. In Germany the greatest discoveries have 
been made, but they weighed them, and doubted so long whether 
they were new and would be useful, that their neighbours the 
French or the English seized on them, and secured the advan- 
tages of them to themselves." 

EcKHARD. — No nation feels so much the worth of other nations 
as the Germans ; and yet is, alas ! so little regarded by most of 
them, even for this obeisance. 

Enderlikt. — I think the other nations are quite in the right. 
A nation that would please all, deserves to be despised of all. 
This has been pretty much the case with Germany, and it is 
only just now that other people have learned to estimate her 
properly. 

VoN Kronen. — Lichtenberg in his time said justly — " The 
character of the Germans hes in two words : patriam fugiraus." 
— Virgil. 

Hoffmann.™ Yes, Lichtenberg — that is an original character ! 
I have learned to prize him properly from Von Kronen. Yes- 
terday, for the first time, I read his famous essay on the state of 
the German Romance of his time. It pleased me so much that 
I must read it out to you. It is short, and will at least be 
finished before the Phrenologists and Anti-Phrenologists there 
have finished their discussion. 



ON THE GERMAN ROMANCE. 

Our mode of living is become so simple, and all our customs 
so httle mysterious ; our cities are, for the most part, so small, 
the land so open; all is so simply true, that a man who is 
desirous to write a German romance, hardly knows how he is 
to bring the people together, or to lay his plot. Then, as the 
mothers now in Germany suckle their own children, there is an 
end of all exchanging them, and a fountain of emotion is thus 



236 THE STUDENT'S 

Stopped, that is not to be purchased with money. If I would 
persuade a maiden to come out in man's clothes, that is imme- 
diately discovered, and the servants betray it, before she can 
get out of the house ; and besides, our ladies are educated in 
such housewifely notions that they have not the heart in them 
to do any thing of the kind. No, to sit fine by mamma, to 
cook and to sew, and to become themselves cooks and sewing 
m.others, that is their business. It is undoubtedly very conve- 
nient' for them, but it's a shame to the Fatherland, and an 
invincible obstacle to the romance writer. 

In England, people think that if two persons of the same sex 
sleep in the same room, a fever is unavoidable, on which ac- 
count the people in one house are by night, for the most part 
separated, and a writer has only to take care that he sets open 
the house-door, and he can let who he will into the house, and 
need not fear that any body will awake sooner than he would 
have them. Furthermore, in England the chimneys are not 
merely the channels of smoke, but the especial windpipes of the 
chambers, and afford at the same time such an excellent way 
to come down into any room of the house, at once and unheard, 
that I have often been told that he who had once gone up and 
down a chimney would prefer it to a staircase. 

In Germany a lover would make a pretty journey if he were 
to come down a chimney ! Yes, if he had a mind to fall into a 
fire-hearth, or into a wash-kettle with lye, or into an anti- 
chamber with two or three stoves, which one probably could 
not open from within at aU. And suppose one should let the 
lover come down into the kitchen, the question then is, which 
way would you bring him first upon the roof? The cats in 
Germany can take this way to their loves, but not men. On 
the contrary, in England, the roofs make a kind of street which 
sometimes are better than those on the ground ; and when a 
man is upon one, it costs him then no further trouble to get 
upon another than to run across a village street in winter. 

People will say that those contrivances have been hit upon 
on account of fires ; but as these scarcely occur once in one 
hundred and fifty years in any house, so I conceive that they 



EVENING PARTY. 237 

have rather been found advantageous to lovers driven to extre- 
mity and to thieves, who very often take this way, when they 
might have chosen others, and certainly always when a hasty 
retreat is necessary, exactly as the witches and the devil are 
wont to do in Germany, Finally, a right powerful prevention 
of intrigues is that otherwise fine and praiseworthy conceit of 
the post-directors in Germany, by whom a vast amount of the 
virtues of the times are preserved, since instead of the English 
coaches and chaises, in which a princess in the most delicate 
condition would neither fear nor be ashamed to travel, they 
have substituted those so-beloved open Rumpelwagen. For 
what mischief the convenient coaches and the most excellent 
highways of England may occasion, is not to be expressed by 
words. 

For, in the first place, if a maiden goes out of London with 
her lover of an evening, they may be in France ere the father 
awoke, or in Scotland ere he has come to resolve with his 
relations what he shall do; therefore, a writer has need of 
neither fairies, conjurors, nor talismans in order to bring the 
beloved into security, since if he can only bring them to 
Charing-Cross or Hyde-Park Corner, they are as safe as if they 
were in Weaver Melek's chest in the Persian Tales. 

On the contrary, in Germany, if the father misses but his 
daughter on the third day ; if he only knows that she is gone by 
post-wagon, he can mount his horse and seize her again at the 
third station. Another mischievous circumstance is the, alas ! 
much too good company in the commodious stage-coaches of 
England, which are always filled full of beautiful and well- 
dressed ladies, and where — a thing which parliament ought not 
not to suffer — the passengers so sit, that they must gaze upon 
one another ; whereby is endangered, not only a highly danger- 
ous bewilderment of the eyes, but sometimes a highly shameful, 
and on both sides a smile-exciting bewilderment of the legs of 
the opposite traveller ; and finally, as frequently as dissolving a 
bewilderment of souls and thoughts arises, so that many an 
honourable young man who was proposing to travel from Lon- 
don to Oxford, has instead of that travelled to the devil. Such 



238 THE STUDENT'S 

things, thanks to heaven, are impossible in our post-wagons ; 
since, in the first place, no genteel ladies could possibly seat 
themselves in such a conveyance if they had not in their youth 
been after climbing hedges, magpie-nesting, apple-gathering and 
battering down of walnuts ; since the spring over the side-ladder 
requires a remarkable nimbleness, and no lady can do it with- 
out setting the coach-master and the ostler-fellows that are 
standing round, laughing. In the second place, the passengers 
so seat themselves, when they at length do seat themselves, 
that they cannot look each other in the face, and in such a 
situation, whatever may be said to the contrary, cannot very 
well begin an intrigue. Conversation loses all its spice, and one 
can at the most only understand what another says, but not 
what he desires to say. In short, one has something else to do 
in a German post wagon than to gossip; one must hold one's- 
self fast when we come to holes, hold ourselves in readiness for 
a spring in case of accident; must keep an eye on the boughs, 
and duck at the proper time, that one's hat or one's head may 
be left in its place ; keep an eye to the windy side, and keep 
strengthening the clothing on that quarter from which the attack 
oomes ; and if it rains, why then one has the property common 
to other creatures that live neither in the water nor on the water, 
of being silent when it is wet ; and thus the conversation stands 
at once stock still. If one at length reaches a Wirthshaus (inn,) 
thus passes the time amongst other things — one dries himself, 
another shakes himself, one sucks his lozenge, another blows up 
his cheeks, or enacts whatever other child's megrim he may be 
in the habit of on such occasions. And hereby comes a circum- 
stance into notice which makes all friendly intercourse in a 
Wirthshaus impossible ; to wit, — that since so many miseries 
are bound up with post-wagon travelling, so care has been taken 
that the Wirthshauses shall be made so much worse than is 
necessary, in order to render a return to the post-wagons the 
more tolerable. And nobody can imagine to himself what an 
effect that has too. I have seen people who were pounded and 
knocked to pieces, and sighed ardently for repose, that when 
they saw the Wirthshaus in which they w^ere to refresh them- 



EVENING PARTY. 239 

selves, with the courage of heroes, have resolved to travel on, 
which was similar to the fortitude of Regulus, which drove him 
back to Carthage, although he knew that they would there put 
him into a sort of German post-wagon, and so let him roll 
down the hill. 

So fall through altogether the stage-coach intrigues with the 
stage-coaches themselves, those true hot-houses of episodes and 
declarations. But, it will be said, there is now a stage-coach 
in Hanover. Good, I know it ; and one quite as good as an 
English one. And must we, therefore, begin all our romances 
on the way between Haarburg and Minden, which we now 
leave so swiftly behind us that we have hardly time to see it? 
All that the travellers do there, is to break out in praise of the 
king who has ordered this coach, and to sleep ; for they are 
generally so wearied before they get into this coach, that they 
then fancy they are got home, or that they lie in bed. But 
those are proper objects truly to fill a romance with ! To in- 
troduce five sleeping merchants, all snoring; or to fill out a 
chapter with the praises of the king ! The first is by no means 
a fit subject for any book, and the latter for no romance. 

But through this exception, I have wandered from my proper 
business. Yes, if there were not left yet a monastery or two, 
to which we can bring a loving couple for refuge, I should not 
know how to carry on a German romance to the third page ; 
and when, in fact, there shall no longer be a cloister left, there 
is an end of German romance. 



The majority of the company paid their tribute of approba- 
tion to this satire. The observations which they made upon it 
were interrupted in good time by the appearance of a steaming 
bowl of punch. When the guests had filled their glasses, Hoflf- 
mann seized his guitar, and accompanied the voices of the rest, 
who sung Schiller's famous song. 



240 THE STUDENT'S 



THE FOUR ELEMENTS. 

Four Elements all thoroughly blent, 
Build up the world, our being cement. 

Press ye the juice of citrons, and pour; 
Harsh is of life the innermost core. 

Now let the sugar's tempering juice, 
Softly the fiery harsh strength reduce ; 

Now let the water bright gushing fall ; 
Peacefully water embraceth all. 

Let drops of spirit therein be thrown ; 
Life to the life it giveth alone. 

Quaff it off quickly ere virtue goes, 
Only revives the well while it glows. 

Freisleben arose, and said, " Let us drink to the prosperity of 
our friend. May many happy years find him still young in his 
spirit, and in the love of his art. May future generations lament 
that he did not live amongst them. May he be continually 
surrounded by friends who love him as we do ! May he only 
know sickness that he may learn more vividly to enjoy health. 
May so much earthly good fall to his lot, that he may live con- 
tented. To his prosperity let us give a three times thundering 
Live-hoch ! Vivat ! — vivat ! — vivat !" 

Hoffmann. — To the prosperity of my dear friends ! May 
you — if in the autumn of our lives we should meet again — say 
to me, " All that we once wished thee on thy birthday, has had 
its fulfilment in ourselves. But may there never come a winter 
in your lives!" Let us sing something in company. 



EVENING PARTY. 



241 



THERE TWINKLE THREE STARS. 



There twinkle three stars, oh ! so friendly ! 

r the darkness of life do they shine, 
These stars, oh ! they sparkle so kindly, 

We call them love, music, and wine. 

We call them love, music, and wine. 

There lives in the sweet voice of singing, 
A heart sympathizing and true; 

Song giveth new youth to rejoicing, 
And barreth the heart to all rue ! 

But wine unto song is united, 

A joyous and wondrous thing ; 
With glowing rays clothes itself brightly, — ■ 

To earth a perpetual spring ! 

But glitt'ring and joyfully v/inking. 

When brightly the third star doth shine ; 

It sounds in the spirit like singing. 
It glows in the bosom like wine. 

Then fill, ye three cordial planets. 
Our breasts with your glory divine ; 

In life and in death our companions, 
Be love, and sweet music, and wine ! 

And wine, and sweet love, and singing, 
They honour the festival night ; 

Then live ! who in kissing and loving. 
In wine and in singing delight ! 

In wine and in singing delight ! 



Hoffmann-. — Gentlemen, don't drink yet. 
more animate you ; so then sing : — 



I must yet once 



Roundelay and barley-wine, 

Love we them for ever ; 
Grasp them bravely where they shine, — 

Cup's exhausted never! 
21 



242 THE STUDENT'S 

(To Mr. Traveller.) Brother, thy beloved is called 1— 
Mr. Traveller. — Georgina. 

All. — Georgina, she shall live-o! shall live-o! 
Georgina, she shall live-o ! 

All. — Roundelay and true grape wine, 
Love we them for ever. 
Grasp them bravely where they shine, — 
Cup's exhausted never. 

(To Von Kronen). Brother, thy beloved is called 1 — 
VoN Kronen. — Rapunzel. 

All. — Rapunzel, she shall live-o ! shall live-o! shall live-o! 
Rapunzel, she shall live-o ! 

So goes the song in this manner round ; and each one names 
the actual or feigned name of his lady. 

Mr. Traveller. — Where, then, have you found the name of 
Rapunzel, Von Kronen? 

VoN Kronen. — Look into Grimms' " Kinder und Haus- 
Marchen ;" there you may read the moving history of Rapun- 
zel, which has so seized upon me that I have without further 
ado made the poor Rapunzel my beloved. 

Enderlin. — I hope that thou correspondest with her. How 
touchingly must the subscription of the letters sound : — " Thy 
faithful Rapunzel," or " Thy affectionate Rapunzel." 

PiTTscHAFT. — But do procurc me the favour of thy Rapunzel 
writing something in my Stammbook. 

VoN Kronen. — In thy bore of a Stammbook? But O yes ! 
yes ! for she is quite at liberty to write in what she will. 

PiTTSCHAFT. — And what, I wonder, will she write ? 

Von Kronen. — Instead of an answer, which perhaps after 
all may not come, I will give thee an anecdote. 

Every body knows how great was at one time the rage ijj 
the universities to have Stammbiicher. Every student kept 
one; and all the inmates of the house, the numerous members 
of the landsmannschaft, the whole body of the teachers and 



EVENING PARTY. 243 

Other acquaintances who approached him, each and all found 
their place in it. A student even came once to Dr. Semmler 
in Halle, with the request that he would have the goodness to 
write in his Stammbuch. Semmler, who, spite of his well- 
known and highly praiseworthy economy of time, could not 
repress his curiosity to turn over the leaves of the Stammbuch, 
found, to his great amazement, almost on every page such 
sentences and sayings as were not the most calculated to give 
him a high idea of the morality of the friends of the gentleman 
Stammbuch-holder. Finding a clear page, he therefore wrote — 
Matt. viii. 31. " Lord, suffer me, that I go amongst this herd 
of swine." 

PiTTSCHAFT. — If Rapuuzcl could say such stupid things as 
thou dost, I should set her down for a very conceited person, 
and would not trouble her with my Stammbuch, more particu- 
larly that she might not get a wicked notion of the morality of 
my friends, and amongst them of her beloved. 

Hoffmann. — Away with all personalities. Let us have a 
roundelay. 

There goes a drinking-law our table all around, around— 
There goes a drinking-law our table all around : — 

Three times three are nine-a. 

Ye know well what I opine-a. 
There goes a drinking-law our table all around. 

What a jolly time the damsels have though — 
They're not compelled to the war to go. 

[Here he drinks out his glass, as each one does in his turn, after having sung.] 



THE KRAHWINKLER LANDSTURM. 

But march you slow there before, but still march slow there before. 
Or the Krahwinkler Landsturm can follow no more. 

What a jolly time the maidens have though, — 
They're not compelled to the war to go. 



244 THE STUDENT'S 

PiTTSCHAFT — 'Dame hostess, cook you Millet-bree, 

When the Landsturm comes it will hungry be. 

Chorus — [As above, and repeated after the singing of each strophe.] 

Freisleben — Our captain is from Rudolstadt, 

He eats a deal, but hungers for all that. 

Von Kronen — Sir Captain ! my follower goes so in trot, 
That scarcely a scrap of heel I have got. 

Enderlin — At Leipsic, in the People's-Fight, 

We had nearly taken a prisoner quite. 

EcKHARD— The artillery would have fought right well, 
But of powder it can not bear the smell. 

Hoffmann (for Mr. Traveller) — The cavalry stout doth charge amain. 

And is always in when the dumpling's 
slain. 

Hoffmann. — Still farther goes our Lumpitus yet once more 
around ! 

At Hamburgh burst a dreadful bomb, 

Potz Wetter ! how ran we there all and some ! 

And as the foe came galloping fast. 
We hid in the grass till they were past. 

The Krahwinkle Landsturm hath courage high. 
The baggage it always standeth by. 

Our Captain is a most valiant wight, 
'Tis only a pity he can not fight. 

They gave us a banner moreover to show. 
Which way the wind did chance to blow. 

Run, run, brave comrades, run left and right — ■ 
A French sentry-box stands there in sight ! 

This song was written originally in ridicule of the Austrian 
Landwehr. It has almost endless strophes, of which a few 
only are here given. It is very frequently used as a Round- 



EVENING PARTY. 245 

song or roundelay, in which each person must sing a fresh 
verse, and when the known verses are at an end, some one 
extemporizes, so that every day it becomes richer in strophes. 
The sixth strophe is then usually sung as the conclusion. 

Hoffmann. — I fill the glasses, and then let us sound a still 
greater Lumpitus. 

Hoffmann — My brethren, when no more I'm drinking, 
But faint with gout and palsy lie, 
Exhausted on the death-bed sinking, 
Believe it then, my end is nigh. [Repeated as a Chorus. 

Freisleben — A lordly life the Pope doth hold, 
He lives on absolution gold ; 
The best of wines still drinketh he — 
The Pope, the Pope I fain would be. 

Von Kronen — Brothers ! in this place of festive meeting, 
God in goodness hath us thus combined ; 
Let us every trouble now defeating. 
Drink here with the friend of honest mind. 
There, where nectar glows — Valleralla ! 
Sweetest pleasure blows — Valleralla ! 
E'en as flowers when the spring hath shined. 

PiTTscHAFT — So crown with leaves the love-o'erbrimming beakers. 
And drain them o'er and o'er ; 
And drain them o'er and o'er; 
In Europe far and wide, ye pleasure seekers, — 
Is such a wine no more ! 
Is such a wine no more! 
Is such a wine no more ! 
Is such a wine no more ! 

Enderlin — Ca, ca, carouse it ! 

Let us not fiery-heads become ; — 
Who won't here now sit. 
Let him stay at home ! 

Edite bibite, coUegiales 

Post multa secula, pocula nulla! 

Mr. Traveller sings " The Old English Gentleman." 
21* 



246 THE STUDENT'S 

EcEHARD — God greet thee, Brother Straubinger, 

I'm glad to meet thee, tho-ough; 
Perhaps it is unknown to thee, 

That from Heidelberg I go-o. 
The master and the misteress. 

Of them I cant complai-en ; 
But with these gents, the studi-ents, 

No mortal can conta-ien ' ' 

Chorus. — The master and the misteress, etc. 

Hoffmann, in the mean time, had seated himself at the harp- 
sichord, and drew a quodlibet from the most varied Burschen 
songs, leaping from one to the other, and interweaving phan- 
tasy-pieces between them. The platform in the chamber ena- 
bled the company to sing the Bavarian Folks'-song, " The 
Binschgauer." One chorus placed itself on the platform with 
the punch-glasses, the other remained by the steaming bowl. 
Hoffmann accompanied them on the harpsichord. 



THE BINSCHGAUER'S PILGRIMAGE. 

The Binschgauer would a pilgrimage go, 
Fain would they go singing, but how they did not know, 
Zschahi ! Zschahe ! Zschaho ! etc. etc. 

The Binschgauer have got there. 
Now take heed that evVy one his knapsack bear, 
Zschahi ! Zschahe ! Zschaho ! etc. etc. 

The Binschgauer far from their homescenes have gone ; 
They saw many cities, and far around were known. 
Zschahi, Zschahe, Zschaho ! etc. etc. 

The Binschgauer long through joy and sorrow run. 
Till high the holy pinnacles glanced i' the evening sun. 
Zschahi, Zschahe, Zschaho ! etc. etc. 

The Binschgauer wended about that dome renowned. 
The vane-staff was broken, yet still the vane turned round. 
Zschahi, Zschahe, Zschaho ! etc. etc. 



EVENING PARTY. , 247 

The Binschgauer entered the holy dome within, 
The saints were all asleep, and woke not with their din. 
Zschahi, Zschahe, Zschaho ! etc. etc. 



The song was ended. The company became continnally 
more jovial, and began, on the platform, to dance a most 
singular quadrille, to which their musician played on the 
harpsichord in the most extraordinary style. Von Kronen, of a 
tall and strong figure, stood there exactly as if he had been 
turned in wood, but an electrical stream seemed to run now 
through this, and now through that limb, and twitched him 
hither and thither. His motions were those of a puppet which 
is drawn by strings attached to every member. When the 
dance was become right wild, then darted he suddenly for- 
wards, so that no one knew whence the movement came, and 
all squandered in astonishment. His partner, the little En- 
derlin, imade a graceful spring, and, as the tall fellow stretched 
wide his legs, darted boldly between them, and then danced 
round him with the newest steps. The other dancers had 
again seized each other's hands, and made such a desperate 
leap that they sprang almost to the top of the room. The 
music rushed on more wildly — the dance grew madder and 
madder, and with more ringing laughter of the spectators, as 
the pair, suddenly making a high side spring, sent a pane of 
glass from the window jingling down into the street. Great 
snow-flakes came whirling into the room through their new- 
made way. " It struck two !" cried several voices. " It is 
time to break up !" exclaimed others. All prepared themselves 
for departure, even the host himself, who would accompany 
his guests a little way. 

The glasses were emptied—" To a speedy and as happy an 
evening !" and the farewell cigars lit. 

The wind without had laid itself, but the snow-flakes chased 
each other rapidly through the air, and a deep snow covered 
the silent streets. In a few moments the merry home-goers 
were clad in a thick covering of snow ; and being once thus 
besnowed, they separated themselves into two parties, and 



248 THE STUDENT'S 

began to bombard each other with snowballs. One party- 
prevailed and put the other into flight. The fleers espied a 
Bauer's sledge ; one jumped in, the other two seized its pole, 
and thus rushed rapidly along the Hauptstrasse, pursued by the 
other party with snowballs. When they now reached one of 
the principal squares, the madcap chase came to an end. The 
sledge remained standing in the square to the amazement of 
the Bauer, who the next morning, after much hunting, found it 
there. 

Now sounded a general " good-night," and every one has- 
tened home. Hoffmann reached his chamber, which filled him 
Mdth that feehng of desolation, so often felt in places which a 
moment before were all alive with the presence of those we 
love. But the delightful consciousness of having enjoyed an 
evening to the uttermost, the still more delightful consciousness 
of having afforded such an one to his friends, absorbed all 
other thoughts. He called to mind again the good wishes of 
his friends, and his last thoughts in the night were, " May 
God, if he denies me every thing else, never, to my life's end, 
deprive me of the sense which renders me capable of enjoying 
worthily such delightful hours." 

DRINKING SONG. 

Ye brothers, when no more I'm drinking, 

But faint with gout and palsy lie, 
Exhausted on the sick bed sinking, 

Believe it then, my end is nigh. 

And die I this day or to-morrow, 

My testament's already made; 
My fun'ral from your care I'll borrow, 

But without splendour or parade. 

And as for coffin, that remanding, 
A Rhenish cask for it shall pass; 
Tnstead of lemon placed each hand in. 
Give me a brimful! Deckel-glass. 



EVENING PARTY. 249 

Into the cellar then convey me, 
Where I have drunk whole hogsheads dry ; 

With head unto the tap then lay me, 
My feet towards the wall may lie. 

And when you're to the grave me bringing. 

As follow all then, man by man ; 
For God's sake let no bell be ringing. 

And clinking glasses be your plan. 

Upon my gravestone be inscribed. 

This man was born, grew, drank, and died, — 

And now he rests where he imbibed 
In lifelong joy, the purple tide. 



THE POPE. 

A lordly life the Pope doth hold, 
He lives on absolution gold ; 
The best of wines still drinketh he; 
The Pope, the Pope I fain would be. 

But no ! 'tis but a wretched lot, 
A German maiden loves him not. 
Alone in his great house lives he — 
The Pope, the Pope, I would not be. 

The Sultan lives full blithe and crowse, 
He liveth in a golden house, 
With lovely ladies liveth he — 
The Sultan then I fain would be. 

But no ! he is a wretched man, 
He liveth by the Alcoran. 
No drop of wine may drink — not he ; 
The Sultan then I will not be. 

Their separate fortunes, howe'er fine, 
I'd wish not, for one moment, mine, 
But would to this right glad agree, 
Now Pope, now Sultanus to be. 



250 THE STUDENT'S 

Come, lovely maiden, yield a kiss, 
For this my reign as Sultan is. 
And faithful brother send a fee, 
For now I choose the Pope to be. 



DRINKING SONG. 

Brothers ! in this place of festive meeting, 
Let us every trouble now defeating, 
God, in goodness, hath us thus combined ; 
Drink here w^ith the friend of honest mind. 

There, where nectar flows, 

Sweetest pleasure blows, 
E'en as flowers when the spring hath shined. 

Golden time ! oh revel we it through, 

Hanging on the friend's devoted breast ; 
From the friend a blissful warmth we'll borrow; 
Of our pleasure cool in wine the zest. 
In the grape's pure blood. 
Drink we German mood. 
Feel we of a higher strength possessed. 

Sip ye not when Bacchus' fountain floweth, 

With full beakers to lips faintly bent; 
He who life by drops yet only knoweth, 
Knoweth not of life the full intent. 
Lift it to thy mouth. 
Drain it in thy drouth. 
For a God from heaven it hath sent. 

On the spirit's light accustomed pinion, 

In the world the youngling plunges bold; 
Friends to win him, as his best dominion. 
And whom fast and faster he will hold. 
So remain mine all, 
Till the world shall fall ; 
Round their friend truth's arms eternal fold. 



EVENING PARTY. 251 

Let ye not the strength of youth be wasted ; 
In the wine-cup doth the gold-star shine ; 
From sweet lips be honeyed sweetness tasted, 
For of life is love the heart divine. 
Is the strength gone forth 1 
Lose the wine its worth"? 
Follow we, old Charon, nor repine. 



RHINE-WINE. 

So, crown with leaves the love o'er-brimming beakers, 

And drain them o'er and o'er, 
In Europe far and wide, ye pleasure-seekers, 

Is such a wine no more ! 

It comes not out of Hungary nor Poland. 

Nor where they French do speak. 
St. Vitus, he may fetch wine from such wo-land. 

Ours there we do not seek. 

It is from Fatherland's abundance rendered, 

How were it else so good ! 
How could in it such noble peace be blended, 

And yet such bravest mood ! 

Yet it grows not upon all German mountains ; 

For many hills we trace. 
Like the old Cretans, dull and sluggish fountains. 

Which are not worth their space. 

The Ertzgebirge, ye need not explore there, 

If wine ye would behold ; 
Thiice spring but silver and the cobalt ore there. 

And mischief-making gold. 

Thiiringia's mountains, for example, bringing, 

A growth which looks like wine. 
But it is not ; o'er that there is no singing, 

No glad eyes round it shine. 



252 THE STUDENT'S EVENING PARTY. 

The Blocksberg is the lengthy Sir Philister, 

As windy and as drear ; 
Dance the cuckoo and his wild sacrister, 

Upon him here and there. 

The Rhine ! the Rhine ! 'tis there our vines are growing ! 

O blessed be the Rhine ! 
The slopes by which that noble stream is flowing 

They give this precious wine. 

So drink ! so drink ! let us all methods trying, 

For joyous hours combine. 
And if we knew where one in wo were lying 

We'd give him of this wine ! 



CHAPTER XIIL 



GENERAL SYSTEM OF GERMAN EDUCATION. 

All our educational institutions form, of many members, an 
existing ring, which embraces the inhabitants of Germany so 
thoroughly, that every one of them must, according to his sta- 
tion and capacity, receive the benefit of a humane education. 
The university beams on this ring like a noble jewel set in gold, 
and while it closes the ring, as the noblest member of the whole, 
it touches again on the commencing portion, over which its 
beneficent splendour shall be diffused. So Mr. Traveller re- 
garded these institutions, and regarded them therefore with 
approval and admiration. Von Kronen, who had already 
delivered to him a short history of the universities, promised to 
give him a brief notice of the general German educational sys- 
tem, which he had prepared, at another opportunity : — and here 
it is. 

A glance into the evolution periods of the continually ascend- 
ing spiritual and material interests of an age ; a glance at the 
state of improvement even of this time, and our latest posterity, 
must unite in the judgment, — with truth was the nineteenth cen- 
tury called " the enlightened /" The spirit of man lies no longer 
in a lethargic sleep ; the nations of the tempus novi appear no 
more the slaves of superstition and of absurdity ; manhood feels 
its worth ; discerns its destiny ; and strains towards the highest 
limit, — towards an ennobled humane accomplishment, with all 
that strength which nature so affluently pours out upon it. Art 
and science embrace with giant arms the awakened spirit of 
man ; they will be, and they are become, the common property ; 

22 



254 GENERAL SYSTEM OF 

and every one seeks to make himself a partaker of them, ac- 
cording to the measure of his individual ability. Trade and com- 
merce flourish ; the activity of the common man, of the greater 
part of mankind, has therethrough acquired a nobler direction. 
Increasing population brings new necessities ; and these, again, 
elicit a zealous wrestling for the means of satisfying them, 
whereby the spirit of man sees itself compelled continually to a 
persistence in the most strenuous activity. And does not all 
this contribute to a perpetually advancing improvement of our 
human heart and mind most essentially? — Does a thistle here and 
there thrive amongst the wheat? still the field is well cultivated, 
and the farmer knows very well how to separate it from the 
crop. 

If we seek now the ground, the cause, of the condition of our 
time in all its connexions, we find the germ laid in the primor- 
dial point of union of every kind of cultivation — in education 
and instruction. Where and at what time has more been done 
for the education of the people than now ? Where and when 
have the Folk's-schools, those primary institutions for the ac- 
complishment of manhood, acquired a higher and more beautiful 
position than at present? This interesting circumstance we shall 
observe somewhat more closely in these pages. 

Perhaps nowhere can a close inquiry into the innermost 
essence of a thing be more entwined with the historical deve- 
lopement of the same, than exactly here, when treating of schools, 
and their peculiar conduct and condition ; and although it is by 
no means our intention to give here a regular history of such 
developement, yet we cannot avoid casting a hasty retrospec- 
tive glance on the schools of a former age, since we shall there- 
by, on the one hand, most securely arrive at the position whence 
we can, as already observed, best learn to judge properly and 
perfectly of the nature of Folk's-schools; and, on the other hand, 
learn best to know the real rank of the schools of our times, and 
to prize their advantages. " The world's history is the world's 
judgment," said Schiller, and certainly he therein pronounced an 
important truth, of which truth where do we find a more evi- 
dent testimony than here, where the most momentous portion of 



GERMAN EDUCATION. 255 

the intellectual cultivation of the human race is concerned ] But 
to come to the matter. 

In far antiquity education was the business of domestic life ; 
and how imperfect it was, under such circumstances, we may 
easily conceive. The parents, uninformed themselves, could 
impart to their children but very scanty information ; the whole 
of life was rather a vegetation, a physical rather than an inward 
and intellectual existence. It was then first, as population in- 
creased and state compacts were organized, that a kind of 
schools arose, because men then learned to see that it was only 
by intellectual ascendency that it was possible to work upon the 
rude mass. The teachers of such schools were the priests ; but 
the scholars were such alone as, according to their custom, were 
destined to some high office. We thus see that real Folk's 
schools were not then in existence ; there was, in fact, no con- 
ception of them ; and what more was necessary to say on the 
subject of the schools of former ages, we have already given 
under the head. Universities. Those institutions were calculated 
rather for the higher range of education, and are to be regarded 
as the forerunners of our universities, on which account we 
may here pass them over. 

It is only with the time of Charlemagne that we can begin 
to talk of Folk's-education and Folk's-schools. Besides the Scola 
Palatii, founded by him, and which was placed under the ma- 
nagement of his friend Alcuin, he also originated and promoted 
in the convents the idea of a female education. He and Alfred 
of England are the true founders of village and country schools. 
National education owes to them an improvement the most ex- 
cellent and rich with blessings ; alas ! that the age was not ripe 
enough to give a ready hand of co-operation to these noble re- 
formers. Before this time, ay, from the very promulgation of the 
Christian religion, the priests had striven incessantly to monopo- 
lise the instruction of the people, and to throw it entirely into 
the hands of their order; a fact most prominently testified by 
the catechetical schools of the second and third centuries, the 
later episcopal and cathedral schools, and, after the sixth cen- 
tury, those most influential cloister schools. And as it had thus 



256 GENERAL SYSTEM OF 

been their constant policy to secure the absolute possession and 
direction of popular instruction, this became the case again, after 
the death of these noble monarchs, when every thing had fallen 
once more into the old track, and these very institutions, which 
they had planned and founded, became still more effectual tools 
in their hands. What might and would result from such a pre- 
dominating hierarchical tendency, experience has taught us. The 
selfish interests of a form of religion, degraded to the most crafty 
state-policy, were made the motives for keeping mankind in 
darkness. The understanding was oppressed by the diffusion 
of superstition ; and under the hypocritical cloak of sanctity, 
beneath which the most unhallowed fanaticism concealed itself, 
the priesthood compelled humanity to wander on in blindness 
and error. The reforms of Charlemagne were as good as for- 
gotten, and the proper Folk's-schools were swallowed up in the 
darkness of the Middle Ages. What was done in course of time 
through the exertions of such men as the Emperor Frederick I. 
took the direction of the high educational institutions, and wholly 
concerned the universities, which had for a long period been 
striving to make themselves independent, and, in fact, were so. 
In the fourteenth century a ruddy streak of dawn showed itself, 
which though but faintly pervading the darkness, yet at a later 
period harbingered the sun. Gerhardus Magnus first spoke out 
the idea of a free education with perspicuity. In 1379 he 
founded an educational insthution at Deventer, in this spirit, 
and thereby led to the creation of similar institutions in the 
Netherlands, on the Rhine, and in North Germany. Montaigne, 
Bacon, and Lord Verulam, were powerful advocates of this idea, 
which, being only more and more stimulated by the reaction- 
system of the hierarchy, lead to the epoch of the fifteenth cen- 
tury. 

The well-to-do Biirger-class began to erect city-corporation, 
or writing-schools, as they were called, and found themselves 
obliged to appoint masters to them at their own cost, as the 
clergy more and more neglected their office of teaching. The 
clergy, however, exerted all their power against these schools, 
on grounds which touched them nearly, for they feared a dimi- 



GERMAN EDUCATION. 357 

nution of their income and their power through a greater en- 
h'ghtenment of the people. Under these circumstances the 
Folk's-schools could not prosper; they either fell speedily, or 
totally degenerated. The city-schools which were founded in 
the sixteenth century, and called Latin-schools, were scantily 
enough endowed, and the proper Folk's-schools were in a still 
more miserable condition most of those in the villages falling to 
decay, and those which did still exist scarcely being worthy of 
the name. 

But the dawn of a new era soon broke, and the arduous and 
holy warfare of the Reformation threw light into the darkness 
of the human mind. Men were now seen to contend for 
knowledge, and strove to rend asunder the dishonourable bonds 
which, in a more animal condition, had been riveted upon 
them. Luther arose, and with him a new order of things in 
the conduct of schools was called forth. Many worthy school- 
masters, who had already gone forth from the pedagogic bro- 
therhood of Gerhardus Magnus at Deventer, and from the 
Rhenish Society of Learned Men, founded by Conrad Celtes 
for the restoration of classical antiquity, had prepared the way 
for the great Reformers. How illustriously shine out in the 
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the names of Desiderius Eras- 
mus, Johann Reuchlin, Johann Dalberg, Rudolph Agricola, 
Wilibald Pirkheimer. They are like sacred signs of an ap- 
proaching better time for the school affairs of the civilized 
world ; and they all strengthened powerfully the hands of 
Luther, Melancthon, Zuinglius, since they treated schools, and 
the whole business of education, in a magnanimous spirit. To 
point out the active services of these men would lead us too 
far; it must suffice simply to remark that continually more, 
and fresh, and faithful teachers came forth, amongst whom, 
Johann Sturm, Valentin Friedland, also called Trotzendorf, 
Michael Neander, Johann Casselius, and Christian Hellwich, 
were especially distinguished. If a great want was still here: 
and there visible, yet the path being once broken open, a retreat 
was by no means to be thought of, and the discovery of Gutten- 
berg contributed not a little to make this impossible. The 

22* 



258 GENERAL SYSTEM OF 

labours of Wolfgang Ratich and Johann Amors Comenius are 
of peculiar importance, whose works are known, and in which 
they treat of the natural and complete developement of all the 
powers of the human mind, especially of the understanding and 
the imagination. Pestalozzi's ideas here lie in embryo before us. 

Soon after the appearance of these men, and the springing 
up of schools framed according to their views, the Jesuits made 
every exertion to draw the management of education to them- 
selves ; and they succeeded to a certain extent, since with their 
usual political acumen, they easily saw that it was necessary 
for them entirely to imitate the form and matter of the evan- 
gelical schools. But the stratagem of these satelhtes of the 
hierarchy was soon seen through, and the best consequences 
were to be hoped, had not the storms of the Thirty Years' War 
crushed so many promising germs and scattered so much beau- 
tiful fruit. School economy, during such an epoch, could only 
wearily maintain itself; the miserable management of ignorant 
teachers, the simple consequence of that fanatical rage, made 
the prosperity of schools a thing beyond hope. Yet this re- 
action actually hastened the entrance of a better spirit, which 
soon found its warmest advocates in Fenelon, Ph. T. Spener, 
but especially in A. H. Franke. 

The activity of the last worthy man had an eminently auspi- 
cious influence ; and other zealous characters soon enrolled 
themselves in the list of the friends of knowledge ; as Godfried 
Zeidler, who simplified the mode of spelling ; Valentin Hein, 
and Sulzer, who, 1700 — 1799, introduced an improved mode of 
teaching arithmetic. But, unfortunately, there soon grew in the 
Folk's-schools a deadly poison of all good — Mysticism, which 
was carried by the teachers to a most mischievous length. 
Equally blighting lay the pharisaical constraint of evangelical 
orthodoxy on the school system, not less influentially than that 
of the Romish hierarchy. It was not till philanthropy raised 
its head in the middle of the eighteenth century, through the 
influence of Locke, Rousseau, and Bassedow, that the school 
system appeared earnestly to seek to improve itself, Locke 
was the first to treat with a philosophical spirit educational 



GERMAN EDUCATION. 259 

tuition, as a connected whole. T. P. Crousatz followed in the 
same path. In Germany, the fiery Bassedow, in 1768, took up 
the Rousseau enthusiasm, and sought to plant the ideas of this 
philosopher in his native soil. 

We imagine that we have so far conducted the reader that 
he can easily follow the description of the institutions for 
popular education of our time. We have arrived at the posi- 
tion we recently alluded to, and have with it reached also, that 
exact point of union whence all that succeeds diverges. Al- 
though it yet remains to be shown how the various kinds of 
schools have gradually developed themselves, we believe we 
may pass over this part of the subject, as on the one hand all 
that is necessary may be inferred from what has just been said, 
and on the other, they are too much a part of the present not to 
be well known to all. Let us therefore proceed to an illustra- 
tion of the system of our Folk's-schools, which divide them- 
selves into higher and lower ; and in the first place notice the 
lower, as 

THE ELEMENTARY, OR PROPER FOLK's-SCHOOLS. 

In matters of school economy, the Catholics in Germany 
continued far behind the Protestants, because they cherished 
the notion that diffusion of knowledge amongst the people was 
dangerous to the state; and therefore most carefully cut off all 
possible opportunities for advancing popular instruction; whereas 
the Protestants, on the contrary, from the last half of the eigh- 
teenth century, spared no sacrifice for the promotion of such an 
object. Such men as Campe, Salzmann, Trapp, rendered ser- 
vices to instruction in a more restricted sense, since they began 
to reduce the science of tuition to a system ; but Rochou was 
the first who undertook, in the spirit of philanthropy, to work a 
genuine reformation in the Folk's-schools. Then appeared 
Pestalozzi, who grounded education on the natural developement 
of the powers and capacities themselves. His system, which 
proved its worth in the severe trials that it underwent in the 
hands of Tillich, Plaman, Schwartz, Ewald, Tiirk, Ladomus, 



2G0 GENERAL SYSTEM OF 

Herbert, Zeller, Harnisch, Kant, Fichte, Schelling, Jean Paul, 
Arndt, Poelitz, Stephani, Dinter, and others, found, by degrees, 
general acceptance ; and our present school system may with 
perfect justice be styled the Pestalozzian. But for the necessary 
preparatory education of teachers themselves, earnest care was 
soon taken, and a great number of school-teacher seminaries 
were founded, in which this class of men must study and 
qualify themselves, and which to them must stand in the same 
relation as the universities to the professors of scientific and 
general knowledge. By these means the general improvement of 
the business of education experienced only accelerating circum- 
stances ; and now even Catholic countries, particularly those 
in which many Protestants dwell, ceased to hang back, and 
there is now scarcely a place in Germany which does not pos- 
sess a school; scarcely a state whose government has not 
thrown out a plan of education more or less adapted to its end. 
Yes; foreign nations themselves now acknowledge the pre- 
eminence of Germany in school economy. 

On a closer inquiry into the organization of these proper 
Folk's-schools, the great variety of the same however strikes 
us, and we cannot here omit to notice a circumstance which is 
of the most essential importance. In many — yes, in most of 
the country schools, are the school establishments subdivided 
according to the different confessions of faith ; and this circum- 
stance extends itself even to the schools of the smallest villages. 
Although the greater part of these are placed under the juris- 
diction of a High Board, and are formed, more or less, on a 
common plan, yet the disadvantage is not to be denied, which 
must necessarily result from such a system of subdivision. We 
have observed above how much all Catholic countries lay 
behind in popular enlightenment, which alone flourishes through 
popular instruction ; and we must, we regret to say, remark 
that this sorrowful experience again manifests itself as an attri- 
bute of these aforesaid school institutions. How very different 
is it in the Protestant schools ! If unlimited freedom of teach- 
ing is given to those as well as these, yet the opinions taught 
are very different, and the consequences of an ail-too scrupulous 



GERMAN EDUCATION. 261 

observation of dogmatic forms, not the most agreeable, are seen 
in the Catholic schools. On the contrary, the Protestant schools 
follow, free from constraint, every direction of the mind, and the 
foundation of a philosophical system is here first discernible. 

In strong contradistinction to both these, stand the so-called 
Communal-schools, as those which are intended for children of 
each denomination. These schools, wherever they exist, exert 
the most beneficent influence on the people. The foundation 
pillars of all human happiness, Tolerance and Intelligence, find 
here the securest guarantees for their enduring existence; since, 
however much men have striven or may strive to counteract 
them, it continues still incontestably true, that the first impres- 
sions on the minds of children are the most vivid and permanent, 
and the spirit in later years of life pursues its course in accord- 
ance with such impressions. It requires no demonstration to 
show how rich in blessings is such a school system ; and the 
reader will excuse us turning now to a further pursuit of our 
theme. 

It is particularly to be observed, that various attempts have 
been made to extend these school regulations so far as to allow 
boys and girls to be taught altogether in one and the same class. 
Such experiments were, however, for the most part confined to 
such places where the circumstances entirely permitted their 
trial, which was only here and there ; and such school disposi- 
tions yet exist. But generally, the instruction is given to boys 
and girls in one building, but in separate rooms. 

Before we cast a glance at the mode of school tuition, we will 
passingly remark, that in most German towns there are, besides 
the proper Folk's-schools, many establishments for boys and 
girls, as well for elementary as for more complete education. 
These stand, however, in no connexion with the Folk's-schools, 
and do not profess in the slightest degree to employ the same 
machinery. Yet these educational establishments in the present 
time deserve so much attention, that to say only what is barely 
necessary upon them would lead us too far. 

The subjects of instruction in the Folk's-schools are these : 
reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, natural history, history; 



262 GENERAL SYSTEM OF 

in the higher classes, mathematics, geometry; instruction in the 
German language ; — extended also to a higher style of penman- 
ship, drawing, and music, seldom more than choral singing, and 
instruction in religion, which last is not given by the teachers 
but by the pastors of the respective faiths. 

When each branch of education has not its individual teacher 
appointed in these schools, the charge of such instruction is 
consigned to a teacher expressly qualified for it. Mistresses 
are also appointed for the girls, as well to teach them the ordi- 
nary school branches, as hand-work. Of this organization, 
however, the schools only of the larger cities can boast them- 
selves. In most of the German towns, the parents are obliged 
to send their children into the schools from their sixth year. If 
they wish to give to their children an education in another place, 
more particularly if they would have them privately educated, 
or would send them to some particular institution, they must for 
that purpose ask permission of the proper Board. On the part 
of persons of high position, or of great property, this is very fre- 
quently the case, but they are seldom on this account exempt 
from the payment of the school impost, as this defrays part of 
the expense of the system, and has, therefore, to be well looked 
after by government. 

The schools are divided into classes, according to the respec- 
tive studies ; that is, into systematic divisions, according to the 
circumstances of the increasing evolutions of the subjects of 
study. No age quaUfies a child to advance into a higher class, 
but capacity and acquirement alone. And in order to give to 
the parents an account of the activity of the school system, as 
well as of the acquirements of the scholars in particular, annual 
examinations are held publicly, in which what has been taught 
and learned is brought forward with all possible despatch, and 
at which the parents are present, that they may convince them- 
selves of the truth of the matter. These public examinations at 
the same time serve to excite the scholars to activity, as rewards 
for diligence and good conduct are distributed, and thus a moral 
value is added to the political one of these institutions. What- 
ever relates to the arrancrement of these schools in their out- 



GERMAN EDUCATION. 263" 

■ward form, in their connexions and relations to the stale, and 
the like, in a word, whatever belongs to the administration of 
the whole, may, in running our observations through them, be 
pronounced to be a good. 

All the teachers are placed under the control of an upper 
teacher: in cities where there are at the same time gymnasia, 
commonly under the director or rector of the same; or they are 
under the special oversight of the principal clergymen of the 
respective faiths. These are, again, dependent on the school 
college, or Upper Council of Studies, which, in connexion with 
the Upper Consistorium, constitutes the highest Board. In how 
far this whole arrangement constitutes one complete and homo- 
geneous scheme of education institutions, including the universi- 
ties themselves, we will hereafter take an opportunity to point out; 
we now proceed to describe the higher institutions for instruction 
which are expressly intended for the people. The next in order are 

THE REAL SCHOOLS ;* 
CALLED ALSO MIDDLE SCHOOLS, HIGHER BURGER SCHOOLS, ETC. 

The origin of these schools we owe, as we have said, to 
Bassedow, who transplanted the ideas of Rousseau to Germany, 
which found, by degrees, a complete introduction, especially 
amongst the tradespeople; yet the Real-schools of that period — 
the end of the last century, are by no means to be considered as 
synonymous with the present ones, although they then excited a 
general interest and acquired for themselves a tolerably high 
position. They agree entirely in this, that they vv'cre schools 
for those who w^ere not intended to go forward to the universi- 
ties, and yet whose future destinations demanded, in some mea- 
sure a higher education than ordinary. The subjects of instruc- 
tion in them were particularly — geography, history, the natural 
sciences, calculation, technology, etc. The first, however, in a 

* Schools in which all the real and practical branches of education necessary or 
advantageous to the business of life, are taught, in contradistinction to the ideal 
and more ornamental branches, as literature, metaphysics, the more critical pro- 
secution of the classics, etc. 



264 GENERAL SYSTEM OF 

more extended range than in the lower class of Folk's-schools; 
these, as they at present exist, and especially such as are organized 
on the most recent plans, are not merely higher Biirger-schools, 
but indeed such as might qualify for an academical course. 
People are, however, far from agreed upon the rights of these 
schools; upon the determination of their relations to the gym- 
nasia, the universities, etc.; at least, in many German states, 
great debates have arisen upon this debatable point, and which 
are yet by no means brought to a conclusion. 

The Real-schools divide themselves into Higher Gewerb* — 
Polytechnical Institutions — and Provincial Real-schools, or 
Higher Biirger Schools. 

Now it is evident, that in consequence of the assumption of 
the higher subjects of tuition, as foreign languages, the higher 
mathematics, physics, etc., by the first institutions, a disadvan- 
tage may occur to the Gymnasia, insomuch as all those who are 
expressly educated for branches of state official service, for 
offices of finance, of the forests, of general administration, etc., 
are educated in the Gymnasia. These, and other reasons which 
we will explain, in noticing the Gymnasia, have been, and pro- 
bably will long continue to be the causes, that no result suffi- 
ciently satisfactory to both parties, however much desired, can 
be arrived at. But the decidedly advantageous influence which 
the collective body of Real-schools exert, and which it will more 
and more extend by still continually extending its sphere of 
action, is not, however, to be mistaken ; and if this excites a 
spirit of hostility, there cannot be a more palpable reason 
assigned for it than that which is drawn from a rich experience 
by a great philologist, and thus expressed: — " What is new is not 
always wholesome; but even the necessary new, and which 
afterwards proves itself to be an actual advance, is certain in 
its commencement to be attacked." 

Let us now glance at the internal arrangements of these 



* These are not to be confounded with common Gewerb-schools, which are 
merely for mechanics : by keeping in mind the Higher Gewerb-school, the distinc- 
tion is clear. 



GERMAN EDUCATION. 265 

schools ; and indeed of the Higher Gewerb-schools — Hterally 
Trade schools — as the so-called provincial Real-schools are 
neither more nor less than better elem'entary schools, or rather 
schools preparatory to the Higher Gewerb-schools; and as so 
many of the real branches of education are undertaken in 
them. To these provincial or preparatory schools belong the 
teaching of physics, natural history, the elements of chemistry, 
modelling, book-keeping, etc. ; instruction in the French, Eng- 
lish, and Latin languages ; drawing and singing ; the former 
subjects, however, only in the higher classes. The subjects 
of tuition in the Higher Gewerb, or technical schools, are, on 
the contrary, mathematics, algebra, plane trigonometry, ana- 
lytical geometry in all its branches and modes of practical 
application ; higher algebra, differential and integral calcu- 
lus, plan-drawing and machine-drawing, botany and zoology, 
and physiology of plants, geognosy, geology ; experimental 
chemistry, technical chemistry, analytical chemistry, practical 
chemical operations ; mineralogy ; mechanics, statistic and 
dynamic, experimental physics, free hand-drawing, modelling 
in wood and metal, and instruction in German, French, English 
and Latin languages, and history. 

It may easily be seen, from this glance at the subjects of 
instruction, how comprehensive these educational institutions 
are. To attempt to describe the advantages that they afford 
would lead us too far, and lies out of our track ; but the sub- 
ject deserves the attention of the whole civilized world, as its 
consequences must become continually more striking. The 
circumstances of our times demand a real education ; that is, 
in the practical arts and sciences. One has long ceased to 
desire that every man shall be every thing ; one wishes rather 
that every one should be qualified to fill with ability his par- 
ticular post. The philosophical school compulsion which rules 
in the Gymnasia is here entirely nonexistent. The all-sided 
human accomplishment which the Gymnasia aim at, and ought 
to aim at more or less, is not arrived at in these schools, 
because it is contrary to their object and intention ; but on the 
other hand, they afford the opportunity more thoroughly to 

23 



266 GENERAL SYSTEM OF 

throw the minds of the scholars on those subjects which are 
the most congenial to them, and which will consequently be 
most serviceable to them in their profession. We ourselves, 
far from being admirers of a too strict, and therefore forced 
and one-sided practical education, cannot help calling to mind 
the splendid proofs of the advantageous and excellent working 
of these praiseworthy schools, since they have impressed us 
with the conviction that in this manner able men have been 
educated not only for the state, but for science, notwithstanding 
the short time that these institutions have flourished. 



THE GYMNASIA 

May now claim our attention, which, particularly through the 
conflict which has arisen between them and the Real-schools, 
must possess an especial interest. 

We must, in the first place, remark, that the word itself 
expresses no actual conception of the thing, as a gymnasium 
properly means an open place, where the youth were instructed 
in philosophy, — in fact, an associate-school. In Athens there 
were three of them : the Academia, the Lyceum, and Cyno- 
sarges. The origin of the gymnasium and the nature of its 
internal business as a higher educational institution, are simply 
indicated by the term. To trace what modifications these 
schools have undergone from that period to the present would 
be a too widely excursive notice for our present purpose. We 
shall, under this head, understand only such as strongly mark 
themselves out by their tendency from the schools already 
described, and which properly divide themselves into the Latin- 
school, Progymnasium, Gymnasium, and the Lyceum. 

The first three are properly schools for future learned men, 
artists, &c ; and in the state in which they exist, as in Bavaria, 
the studies are commenced in the Latin school, and are ended 
in the Gymnasium, as the school preparatory for the university. 

By the Lyceum, in a restricted sense of the word, we under- 
stand such a school as seems to conduct to a certain point, the 



GERMAN EDUCATION. 267 

education of the students of the scientific faculty; although in 
the first, that is, in the Gymnasia, etc., all subjects of study are 
facultative. For the rest it is very difl^cult to give a descrip- 
tion of these schools which shall express their real character, 
since in every one of the German states they have diflferent 
names with diiferent meanings, and in many places bear various 
appellations where they possess the same tendency. The Gym- 
nasium and Lyceum equally signify schools which give a course 
of education expressly preparatory to an academical career, 
and we shall therefore include both under the general name of 
Gymnasium. 

The elementary instruction, let it have been acquired as it 
will, must have made a certain advance before the scholar can 
enter the Gymnasium, since in the lowest classes — the Gymna- 
sium is divided into classes in the same manner as the Folk's- 
schools — are taught the elements of the Latin tongue, history, 
mathematics, etc. Here are especial teachers for every faculty 
of science ; that is, one teacher, particularly in the higher 
classes, teaches one determinate subject. 

The study of the ancient classics continues still the chief 
business, since the German philologists conceive that they con- 
stitute the only and indispensable gymnastics of the mind. This 
is another ground by which these schools have come into open 
feud with the Realist tendency of the age — why the Gymnasia 
have dreaded an encroachment on their rights through the 
rapid growth and infiluence of Real-schools; because they feared 
that the public would come to see in their effects, that there 
was another mode of awaking the spirit to an internal activity 
than by the study of the dead languages. 

It is not to be denied that through the study of the ancients 
the spirit is awakened; the sense of the noble and the great is 
inspired; that the poetical feehng is excited, — the taste purified, 
and the reason strengthened ; that the mind is accustomed to a 
logical activity, and especially to self-reflection. But the school- 
men go too far with this. They are orthodox, and are con- 
tented that the future learned should here find their necessary 
nourishment. They will, in general, acknowledge no other 



268 GENERAL SYSTEM OF 

learning or education than that of the Gymnasium, and torment 
every one with it who, as a future tradesman, can manage his 
affairs perfectly without this knowledge, and can bring by it 
little or nothing out of the school into his own trade. Yet at 
present the Gymnasia strive so far to meet the acknowledged 
necessities of the time, that they have adopted some of the 
educational subjects of the Real-schools, as mathematics, and 
the natural sciences in the fullest sense of the word. The 
subjects of tuition, with the exception of the predominant teach- 
ing of the ancient languages, are in general those of the other 
schools ; that is, of the Folk's-schools, in a higher degree. The 
relation to the state is the same as that which we have already 
made ourselves acquainted with in the Folk's-schools; and we 
will now only explain a few more of the peculiarities of the 
Gymnasia. 

A totally different discipline prevails in the Gymnasia to that 
of the Folk's-schools. Corporal punishments here, for the most 
part, cease in the higher classes entirely. Tasks, shutting up, 
open reproof, but especially moral restraint, are the means 
employed for correction. The teachers also stand in a totally 
different position in regard to their scholars; at least in the 
higher classes there is less school compulsion, though probably 
on that account not the less pedantry to be observed. In 
general, the gymnasiast is already more free, and placed in 
greater external advantage than the scholars of the other 
schools; the near prospect of student life calls forth, not seldom, 
extravagances, which, however, are contended with more vigo- 
rously by the teachers, but through the advanced age of the 
youths are not readily repressed. Though it is strictly forbid- 
den, yet the gymnasiast frequently resorts secretly to pubhc 
places of diversion, inns, etc. ; he also begins to smoke, and to 
become regardless of conventional relations. In many cities 
the gymnasiasts have actually endeavoured, of course only the 
older ones, to form corporations, and to imitate the university 
Chores. But spite of all this, the constant and great diligence 
of the gymnasiasts is not to be denied. They exert themselves, 
because they know that it is only by that means that they can 



GERMAN EDUCATION. 269 

arrive at promotion ; that is, that they can obtain the right to 
enter the university. We must here break off a moment to 
notice a particular which is of essential importance. 

The Exemption-and-Maturity-Right* belongs ejfclusively to 
the Gymnasia — another cause which has called forth in many 
German states contentions, the other schools already making 
claims on this privilege. Nothing can indeed be more vexa- 
tious, and even in many cases, unsetthng, than for an able 
scholar of the Real-school, after he has passed his examination, 
and has given ample proof that he is quite quahfied to enter the 
university, to have again to make the course of the Gymnasium, 
again to weary himself with the reading and study of the 
ancient classics, entirely for the sake of the formality of promo- 
tion, which might just as well be conferred on the Real-schools, 
and by which money and more especially time might be spared. 
From the higher position which these schools have already 
assumed, it is, however, to be expected that this injustice will be 
done away with, at least, that the Exemption-and-Maturity- 
Right will be extended to those Real scholars who devote them- 
selves to state science, and to those professions which are 
included in it. 

We cannot here avoid taking the opportunity of remarking 
that, through the contention of these two institutions, which we 
have thus described according to their different motives, there 
stands before the Gymnasium a reorganization, unless the an- 
cienne regime maintains the upper hand; that is, if the one- 
sidedness of the strong philological party, which aims at a total 
isolation of the two institutions, or rather at a complete preven- 
tion of their co-operation, shall not achieve the triumph of up-, 
holding the Gymnasia in the most unlimited possession of their 
antiquated privileges ; are not, indeed, prepared to resist the 
stream of time by main force, and to deprive the Real-schools 
of their equally high importance. The conflict is severe, be- 
cause prejudices are here attacked ; but the impetus of human 

* Right of matriculation in the universities on the ground of the applicant 
having properly matured his studies in the Gymnasium. 

23* 



270 GENERAL SYSTEM OF 

advancement surmounts every difficulty, and the spirit of man 
knows no restraint which ultimately may not be broken 
through ; — but we must return to our subject. 

When the gymnasiast has passed through all the classes, he 
then undergoes his examination. As in the Folk's-schools, so in 
the Gymnasia also, there are held annual public examinations 
for the same purpose ; to which, however, is added a govern- 
ment commissioner, for the examination of the Abiturienten; that 
is, of those who are about to depart, and proceed to the uni- 
versity. This commissioner has to pronounce his solemn judg- 
ment upon the performances of the Abiturient, according to 
which his promotion is allowed or not. This is generally ac- 
companied on the part of the Abiturient by a farewell, or other 
speech, which is usually composed in Latin or French, and on 
that of the School College by a public summons to the university, 
to which is added the necessary school-certificates. 

It is now curious to see how the Abiturient will conduct 
himself from the moment that he turns his back on the Gymna- 
sium. Not a book will be looked at ; not a pen will be touched ; 
he recompenses himself immediately for the school torment that 
he has passed through, by a delightful do-nothing ; and gives 
himself up in anticipation to the blessed consciousness of stu- 
dent life. The foretaste of awakening liberty leads him to 
commit a thousand follies; he imagines himself lord of the 
world, and knows no conventional restraints. The parents 
have the worst of it, as they are seldom in a situation to put a 
salutary damper upon the forth-bursting storm of the mind of 
the youth. To travel is rule the first with which the Abiturient 
busies himself; that is, in which he seeks to sound the depths, 
and explore the regions of the desired freedom. His great en- 
deavour is now to knit up acquaintances with students, and so 
comes he easily into student Ufe. But in many places it is cus- 
tomary that the Abiturient should give a farewell entertainment. 
Thither are invited the best of his friends from the abandoned 
school, and his new ones amongst the students ; and the whole 
takes much the character of a Commers. It is, moreover, re- 
garded as a ceremonial act, and is introduced by the singing of 



GERMAN EDUCATION. 271 

the customary song — The Land's Father. From this period 
the Abiturient bears the name of Camel, which he has acquired 
in exchange for the abdicated one of Frog. 

It may be sutScient to remark, that the educational institutions 
of every kind keep tolerably equal step with the universities. 
That Germany bears away the crown of school economy from 
all other countries, is not to be denied. Or where is the country 
which has more flourishing schools than Prussia, Wirtemberg, 
Baden, etc. 

We here conclude w^ith the words with which we commenced 
— " the nineteenth century is the age of enlightenment ;" and 
Germany propels at the highest speed its spirit towards intel- 
lectual consciousness. It possesses a moral vigour which no 
other nation of the earth possesses, and the giant arms of Ger- 
man art and science embrace the whole wide surface of the 
globe with an all-living power. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



SONG AN INDISPENSABLE KEQ,UISITE TO THE STUDENT, AS TO ALL 
GERMANS. 



Where man sings, lie down — there certain peace is ; 
Amongst the bad, all song of gladness ceases. 



Traverse the whole territory of Germany, every where, in 
the north and in the south, thou wilt hear Gernaan songs. 

What is the German's Fatherland? 

So name me, finally, that land ! 

" Far as the German's free tongue spring?, 

And hymns to God in heaven sings," 

That shall it be, while sun doth shine ! 

That land, brave German, call it thine ! 

Serious and deep feeling are characteristic traits of the Ger- 
man, and may indeed distinguish his character, so variously 
modified as it is, amid all the divisions of the German race, and 
by its manifold points of contact with its foreign boundary 
neighbours, and thus becoming tinged with so many colours. 
He who has the skill to clear the original colour from its foreign 
mixtures, will continually find it lying as the one ground colour, 
which always remains the same. To this depth and sincerity 
of feeling the songs and poetry of the Germans are a necessity 
As to the man — when all the chords of his heart are shaken by 



SONGS OF THE STUDENTS. 273 

some mighty sorrow; when they threaten to rend asunder 
under the excess of agony — as then to him comes a flood of 
tears as a relief; which, as it were, combines the contending 
feelings of his internal being, and amalgamates them with the 
most neutral body — water ; so song presents itself as a medium 
to prevent us from succumbing beneath an overwhelming feel- 
ing, which the sufferer would fain clothe in words, but finds all 
words too poor to represent. Let a language be as rich as it 
will, it may possibly express all that man thinks, but not all that 
he feels. Nature has lent the eye to the understanding that it 
may serve it, and in which it may wonderfully mirror itself. 
In this microcosm of the eye, her creative power has marvel- 
lously repeated, in little, every part of his masterpiece — man ; 
and has so completely furnished it, that it can answer most 
admirably to its destination — to conduct man to the truth. But 
nature has bestowed upon her favourite yet another sense, 
through which the fibres of his brain can instantly be put into 
vibration. Through this she has rendered his position in society 
delightful, and endowed him with sensibility to foreign commu- 
nications. 

But shall these be the only advantages which this sense shall 
procure him 1 No ; through this shall external impressions 
enter, which, corresponding with the laws of beauty, shall 
furnish him with a new enjoyment. Through this, feeling can 
be constantly and directly acted upon — that portion of the 
human soul where the animal and the divine nature so wonder- 
fully meet. In vain would he attempt to escape from its lord- 
ship ; its power extends farther than appears at the first sight ; 
and when sufficiently observed, is found to be the ultimate 
spring of all human operations. Other nations may, if they 
please, believe that the ear was given them in order to listen to 
strange language, — the German is not so cruel as to rend 
Euterpe and Polyhymnia out of the band of the Nine Sisters. 
Every where in Germany are altars built to these sisters, and 
the goddesses smile down approval on the people, because they 
deem themselves worthy to scatter incense before them. 

The faith in the mysterious might of music and of song, 



274 SONGS OF 

which so beautifully expressed itself in the Mythology of the 
Greeks, shone forth also in newer Sagas ; and even refined 
Christendom has not disdained to employ music to work upoii 
the hearts of its votaries. Goethe has done homage to this 
beautiful faith when, in his Prologue to Faust, he causes 
Raphael to speak. 

The sun, in its old way, goes sounding, 

With brother-spheres in rival song. 
And its prescribed course thus rounding. 

Careers with thunder-speed along. 

Thus the Germans rejoice themselves in an affluence of 
popular songs, although they possess but few national poets. 
This latter fact easily explains itself, when one reflects how late 
the German speech arrived at a greater perfection, and that, 
at the same time that Germany achieved a literary indepen- 
dence and literary greatness, it lost its political freedom, and 
came out of its captivity a dismembered whole. 

Take from Germany its u^ine, its songs, and we might name 
yet a third particular of a less middle character,* and it will 
become quite another country. The German expresses the most 
varied feelings in song, though he does not go quite so far as 
the opera, in which you cannot, without smiling, hear the Czar 
of Russia conclude a contract with the English and French 
ambassadors singing, and ratify the Treaty of Peace in the 
most exquisite melodies. But the Germans acknowledge the 
truth of what Goethe has said : 

What I erred in, what I sought for; 
What I lived through, what I fought for ; 
Are but flowers in this bouquet: 
And the young, the old and ailing, 
And each virtue as each failing. 
Speak their language in some lay. 



* Here the learned author undoubtedly alludes to the universal passion for 
smoking. Germany is truly, in every sense a piping nation. 



THE STUDENTS. 375 

The common man in Germany sings as he goes to his 
labour ; he sings while he works, in order to enliven himself, 
and when he has concluded he naturally sounds forth his song 
of satisfaction. A pleasure, without the accompaniment of 
singing, he does not understand. Thus the foreigner, who has 
a taste for singing, hears, with surprise, a chorus-song resound- 
ing from a public-house, or passing along the streets, which 
might not sustain a very severe criticism, but which does all 
honour to the uneducated singers. So they establish themselves 
in the smallest villages into Gesang-vereine (singing companies), 
and the author recollects with particular pleasure, a serenade, 
which he heard in returning late one evening from Schriesheirn, 
in the village of Handschuhsheim ; and also the delightful choral- 
song, which a company of peasants and peasantesses, frequently 
raised in the summer evenings in the castle-gardens at Schwet- 
zingen, and which in the stillness of twilight, when the splashing 
of the distant fountains were only heard besides, produced an 
extraordinary effect. 

Thus it happens that songs of simple contents and of simple 
airs, spread themselves rapidly amongst the people, and by no 
other means in Germany can you so speedily operate on the 
popular mind as through the medium of such songs. In almost 
every difl'erent place you hear different songs. As an example 
of these songs, which are current amongst the people, we may 
here give a very favourite one, which is sung in a sort of half 
recitative. 

PRINCE EUGENE.* 

Prince Eugene, that noble captain. 

For the Emp'ror fain would back win, 
Town and fortress of Belgrade, 

And that they at once might do it, 

And the army all rush to it, 
Caused he that a bridge be made, 

* This is translated with the same free defiance of rhyme and metre as dis- 
tinguishes the original, and which may find plenty of parallels in our own old 
ballads of the people. 



276 SONGS OF 

When this work so far had ran on, 
That with baggage and with cannon 

They could pass the Danube flood, 

By Semlin struck they their tents all, 
And to chase the Turks they went all, 

To chase them far with jibes and blood. 

It fell on the twenty-first of August, 

There came a spy through rain and storm-gust. 

Swore to the Prince, and showed him then, 
That the Turks did near him hover. 
As far as man could them discover, 

With three hundred thousand men. 

When Prince Eugene thus comprehended, 
He bade that he should be attended 

By his generals and field-marshals ; 
He caused them to be instructed 
How the troops should be conducted. 

And upon the foe should fall. 

Through the parole the word was given, 
That when they count one and eleven 

At the midnight by the clock. 

Every man to horse should go then, 
For to skirmish with the foemen. 

All who strength had for the shock. 

All to horse at once then leaping, 
And their swords before them keeping, 

Swift and silent they advance ; 

The troopers and hussars also then. 
Struck right stoutly, blow for blow then, 

'Twas, in truth, a lovely dance. 

Gunners to the walls advancing, 

Play ye music to this dancing, 
With your cannons great and small ; 

With the great ones, with the lesser. 

On the Turks ! and on the Heathens ! 
Till they scamper one and all ! 



THE STUDENTS. 277 

Prince Eugenius on the right wing, 

Like a lion there was fighting, 
As general and field-marshal. 

Prince Ludvvig rode to and fro then, 

" On, be brave, ye German brethren, 
Strike the foe with dauntless hands !" 

Prince Ludwig he must surrender 

His spirit and his life so tender. 
For a bullet struck him down ; 

Prince Eugene was sorely grieved 

Of such friend to be bereaved, 
And had him brought to Peterwardein. 

The Bauer, the Handworker, the Sportsman, in short, each 
and all have their peculiar songs in abundance, which are never 
out of their mouths. Do all Germans then sing, and sing they 
every where ? some one may ask. No, don't fear that you 
would actually be deafened with singing in Germany. The 
Bundestag,* when it holds its sitting ; the Landtag,f when it is 
in debate; the statesman in the business of his office; the learned 
man writing his dissertation, and many other people, don't sing; 
in short, people do not sing in their solemn affairs, though the 
opera makes them do so. But amongst those who have nothing 
better to do, the little children who have yet no proper voices, 
or initiated ears for it, and the very old people who have partly 
sent their teeth before them into another world, are the only 
ones that don't sing. The young sing much, the care-free young 
still more ; and the students perhaps most of all. 

Singest thou not through all thy lifelong hours'? 

Yet in thy youth rejoice ; 
We hear alone while lasts the moon of flowers 

The nightingale's sweet voice. 

Uhland. 

It is this also which gives heart to the student ; and how can 
he who is called the son of the Muses, do otherwise than be 

* States Confederation. t Parliament of a State. 

24 



278 SONGS OF 

obedient to his divine mother? The so-called Commers-Books 
contain a rich collection of songs, so that the student can be in 
no embarrassment to find one suitable to the moment. He finds 
here a song adapted to every occasion, and to every mood of 
mind. Before all, social songs are in requisition when the 
students are assembled at their Kneip for a merry meeting. 
As the larger assemblies of this kind are called Commers, so 
the song-books are called the Commers-Books. 

When a song is sung by a number of them in company, it is 
the duty of the Foxes to hand round these books. The popular 
songs live, however, without the books, permanently in the 
minds of the students. An individual student often sings a 
song solo. The greater portion of them are only what may be 
called natural singers ; but in a large Chore this is not of much 
consequence. In most of the German schools a portion, but a 
very scanty portion of instruction in singing is given, and this 
mainly with the object of preventing the people from too much 
disturbing the devotions of the congregations in the churches 
by their dissonance. By this, however, so much is gained, that 
every one who has afterwards neglected singing, yet still re- 
tains a notion of it. There is besides sure to be found amongst 
such a throng of students, no inconsiderable number, who 
possess a really fine voice, and which has, therefore, not been 
neglected. These are they who in the Kneips often execute a 
solo, or in the choral-songs undertake the solo part, and others 
endeavour, by the power and steadiness of their voices, to con- 
ceal the defects of those who sing with them. When, as often 
happens in summer, the company suffer their songs to float in 
the open air, and when the cups have not gone too diligently 
their round, it is then a genuine pleasure to listen to them. One 
of the most beautiful songs, and which is most frequently sung 
at the German universities, is this, in which the effect of the 
chorus is often strengthened by the accompaniment of instru- 
mental music : — 



THE STUDENTS. 279 



COMMERS SONG. 

From high Olympus comes our pleasures crowning, 

From thence our dream of youth was sent ; 
Therefore trust brothers, spite of Envy's frowning, 
Who would our youthful joys prevent. 
Solemnly sound ye the jubilant song. 
Revelling brothers with beaker clang. 

Deep in the sea of youthful pleasure drinking, 

Joy smiles and beckons from the shore; 
Till on some evening late the bright sun sinking, 

Delights us with its beams no more ! 

Solemnly, etc. 

So long as pleaseth God, thus friends beloved. 

In gladness shall our life move on ; 
And when, some day, the curtain is removed, 

We'll join our worthy fathers gone. 

Solemnly, etc. 

Drink, brother, drink ! thy loved one, — think upon her, 

She who thy youth's dream blesseth still ; 
A glorious " Ho !" now sound we to her honour, 

That through her every nerve shall thrill ! 
Solemnly, etc. 

And of our brethren is there one departed — 

By pale Death summoned in his bloom 1 
We weep, and wish him peace, all saddest hearted, 
Peace to our brother's silent tomb. 

We weep and wish that peace may dwell 
In our dear brother's silent cell. 

Very frequently in the students' drinking companies they 
sing a roundelay, as we lately saw at the evening peep at them 
at Hoffmann's rooms, where each one sings in turn a song, or, 
at least, a strophe. This, as we have seen, they term a Sauf- 
Comment, which we may look at a little more closely, as it is 
sometimes attended with variations. The president of the 
Sauf-Comment sings, — 



280 SONGS OF 

There goes a drinking-law our table all around, around, 
There goes a drinking-law our table all around. 

Ten quarts and yet one-a 

Ye knew well what I think on-a. 
Ten measures and ten mo, 
Fidibum ! let one now go, let one now go, let one now go ! 

Or, 

Three time three are nine-a. 

Ye know well what I opine-a, 

There goes a drinking-law our table all around ! 

When all have suncr round till it comes to one who can find 
no more song to sing, the Chore then sings — 

Our brother, N. N. 
To pitch, to pitch, is turned again. 
Draw thou white-horse good. 
Up to the knees in mud, etc. 

The student has, again, other songs for festive celebrations 
and for fun, as for the initiation of the Foxes, by the Fox-ride ; 
for the Commers ; for the departure from the university ; nor is 
he at all wanting in songs proper for a serenade to his beloved. 
Love, Wine, Fatherland, Friendship, of them the poets of a 
former age have sung, and of them sing the poets of our own. 
These the songs of the student celebrate, and the son of the 
Muses does not forget to enjoy his wine while he sings of it, 
well knowing how very often the other things exist rather in 
idea than in actuality. 

And who should be more in the humour to sing a merry song 
than the student, who revels in the enjoyment of the serene pre- 
sent, perhaps shutting out a darker future from his eyes, which 
is yet separated from him by his examination. This happy 
time, free from all cares, which darken the later life of him 
who grasps at riches or at the phantom of renown ; this time, he 
knows well, comprehends but a few years, — " but the whole of 
life," thinks he philosophically enough, " is but a span of time, 



THE STUDENTS. 281 

therefore let us the more enjoy these years, and celebrate with 
song the felicity of youth." In this spirit they often sing and 
act with great glee the following comic piece : 

AN UNBOUNDED JOLLITY. 

An unbounded jollity is of my life the rule, Sir, 
Since it leads me gaily through youth's rosy paradise : 
Comes a Manichean in, an old dunning fool, sir, 
I'm sure to give him much good advice. 

"'Slife! hear you now, sir, I want my gold." 

" Cease jaw, Camel, I've none, and that's soon told." 

Spoken. — Make thyself scarce, Old Lamentable ! Give time ! or I'll pay 
thy long bill with five silver groschen. Agio. — We'll knock it all off, (point- 
ing to his stick, and showing his five fingers.) 

Quickly doth the old fool fly. 

And I laugh till fit to die. 

Pray then when a-fresh the rhino cometh in, sir. 

An unbounded jollity, etc. 
Morning to the lectures go ; nine-pins in the evening ; 
Early, in old house-coat ; not till late our toilet made. 
To Commers then haste away. 
For there's pawked in a Fox to-day. 

Spoken. — " Silence, Fox ! hold your tongue when Old Mossy Heads are 
speaking." — " Ah ! Heavens ! I can drink no more of these healths. It 
makes me so ill." — " Hold thy tongue, Fox ! Thou hast yet only emptied 
nineteen choppins of most excellent beer. It is not worth talking of. Study 
only three years, and thou'lt bring it up to nine-and-twenty." 

So we hold the Commers here, 

Jolly still with wine and beer. 

For we are but young once, in our life so fleeting. 

An unbounded jollity, etc. 
Meet I now an Exquisite, who comes stately sailing. 
Who right flat and swelling large, draws near. 
Then trample I on his toe — then wondereth he ; 
I tread it again — then waxeth he wroth. 
24* 



282 SONGS OF 

Spoken. — " Hear you there ! Was that done purposely with the foot ■?" 
— "No; it was done with the heel." — " So! but that appears to me very 
strange ?" — " Do me then the only pleasure ; find nothing strange here. You 
are a Stupid Youth !" 

And the duel then is seen, 

For the wit is mighty keen ; — 

Strike him a thundering Winkelquarte !* 

An unbounded jollity, etc. 
Find I then a sweet maid and loving. 
Then contains Ovidii Ars Amandi, good advice. 
" Ay, but wilt thou marry me I" — " Don't be afraid ; 
When I've once my office got, 'twont be delayed." 

Spoken. — " Aha ! that's just as it happens ! First I go to Jena, there to 
study the Nefas ; then go I to Heidelberg, study there the great Fass.\ 
That's the way of it." 

And then comes the tug of strife. 

With the Pandects, life for life. 

Then after, examen, office calls, and then for marriage. 

An unbounded jollity, etc. 
I'm a great philosopher, of the school of Hegel, 
And his system follow I to the life. 
The Beadle is upset, the Philistine is teased ; 
Goes all wrong — the Prorector is appeased. 

Spoken. — " Well, Sir ! last night you have again cudgelled and floored five 
watchmen ; and for this you must spend four weeks in the Career." — " Your 
Magnificence, I think nothing of that !" — " You will go on cudgelling watch- 
men till you get the Consilium abeundi." — " Youth must sow its wild oats ; 
— that's an old rule. Your Magnificence was young once : certainly it's a 
good while ago ; but spite of this, I hope one of these days to become an 
honest, brave fellow, and do service to my Fatherland, and become a special 
honour to your Prorectorate." 

Thereupon drops he a tear ; 

Thinks of his youth — " Ah ! it was dear !" 

Gives me an examen summa cum laude. . 

An unbounded jollity, etc. 
* A slanting cut in the left cheek. t Great tun. 



THE STUDENTS. 283 

Happy are they who carry on with them this free and cheer- 
ful disposition into after-life, which for most of those who now 
live so gaily and happily at the university, brings an arduous suc- 
cession of labours loaded with cares and fatigues, which, how- 
ever, sometimes leave as their reward at the end of their career 
of life, a consciousness of having discovered a certain portion of 
truth, and of having been able to benefit their fellow-citizens. 
Student-life thus belongs to those things which can come only 
once in our existence, but which are on that very account the 
fullest of happiness, and must often extend their influence so far 
as at least to refresh by their memory a later, solemn, and joy- 
less life. The songs of a happy youth accompany him who has 
entered on the more serious path of his existence, and their 
melody is able to bring him back for a moment now and then 
into the dream of his young years. With a song of sorrow the 
student too, follows to the grave the brother who departed this 
life, and then turns from the image of death, and rejoices that 
he yet longer can enjoy the happy Burschen p6<:iod. 



GAUDEAMUS IGITUR. 

Gaudeamus igitur 
Juvenesdum sumus; 
Post jucundam juventutem, 
Post molestam senectutem, 
Nos habebit humus. 

Ubi sunt, qui ante nos 
In mundo fuere 1 
Vadite ad superos, 
Transite ad inferos, 
Ubi jam fuere. 

Vita nostra brevis est, 
Brevi finietur ; 
Venit mors velociter ; 
Rapit nos atrociter ; 
Nemini parcetur. 



284 SONGS OF THE STUDENTS. 

Vivat academia, 
Vivant professores, 
Vivat membrum quodlibet, 
Vivant membra quselibet ; 
Semper sint in flore. 

Vivant omnes virgines, 
Faciles, formosse; 
Vivant et mulieres, 
Vivant et mulieres 
Bonse, laboriosse. 

Vivat et respublica, 
Et qui illam regit ; 
Vivat nostra civitas, 
Mecenatum caritas, 
Quae nos hie protegit. 

Pereat tristitia, 
Pereant osores ; 
Pereat diabolus, 
Quivis anti-burschius 
Atque irrisores. 



CHAPTER XV. 



DRINKING CUSTOMS OF STUDENT LIFE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 



Seize the glittering wine-cup there ! 
See ye not, so purply winking. 
Blood of nature, rich and rare ? 
Let us grasp it, boldly drinking, 
That a fire-strength may glow 
Through each vein — a new creation ! 
Sacred is of wine the flow — 
Is of youth the glad elation I 

Uhland. 



Have the gods drunk nectar ! — the gods, exempt from all the 
cares of mortal existence, and shall then poor mankind be envied 
the enjoyment of their earthly nectar? No; not without cause 
was it celebrated by all the ancient poets. Even the great Re- 
former himself joined in its praise; and Horace says — 

Narratur et prisci Catonis, 
Saepe mero caluisse virtus. 

Then come the moralists truly and say, " You should not 
purposely throw yourselves into an artificial gladness; the true 
gladness comes from within." Very true ; and the genuine 
healing of sickness comes from within, and you shall and can- 
not subdue it by art? It is therefore that the Turks believe that 
you ought not to assist nature in her marvellous operations by a 
healing means. If that be your faith, do as the Turks do, and 
drink no wine. But have we not thus a thousand things which 



286 DRINKING CUSTOMS 

are to a certain degree necessary to our well-being, necessary 
to preserve tiie proper tone of mind and body 1 And would you 
blindly condemn all these? Wherefore then do you imagine 
that wine was made 1 Would you banish all poetry out of life, 
and say 

Who then would cheat himself with phantom shapes, 
That with a borrowed charm do clothe existence, 
And with a false possession follow Hope ? 

Schiller. 

Will you do that ? Then, indeed, must you banish wine ; for 
it is, so to say, an incarnate poetry. For if it were not that, 
it were nothing to us ; and to whomsoever it is not that, him 
counsel we to refrain, and to hand it over to other and happier 
mortals. But think well on it ere you banish all poetry out of 
the world. 

The roseate-tinted veil of dreams 

Falls from Life's countenance of pallid gloom. 

And the world showeth as it is — a tomb. 

Schiller. 

Who, then, would wish to live in such a world ? No ; we 
value the wine which calls forth the poetry of the inner man of 
him who is not totally abandoned of the Muses. But you, 
perhaps, reprobate the enjoyment of wine as too ignoble and 
material. But is it then the material portion of the wine which 
confers on us its witchcraft ? No ; it is the fine spirit, and that 
ethereal life which the German calls the flower of the wine. 
They ascend to the exhausted brain, and brace the relaxed 
chords. Know you then whether the strength which gives to 
life poetry and fresh grace, may not be one and the same ? 
Whether the strength which is here bound to the material sub- 
stratum, be not the same which there seizes thee mightily in the 
creations of Shakspearel whether it be not the same which 
lives in the accord of the violoncello; whether it be not the same 
which dwells so entrancingly in the voice of the beloved 1 Yes, 
the spirits of the wine are related to others ; and when they 



OF THE STUDENTS. 287 

discover their brothers in the breasts of men, so combine they 
vigorously, and bursting their bonds, rush forth into active 
operation. All those noble feelings which had long, perhaps, 
by their possessor, who had experienced the bitter deceits of 
life, been beaten down and slept in obscurity — now, touched by 
the magic wand of wine, start again from their tomb. But 
when the spirits of the wine find there only strange and ignoble 
associates, then raise they with them a fierce conflict, in order 
from such guests of hell to free man ; whose difference from 
all other beings, says Goethe, consists in this — that he be 
noble, helpful, and good ! Therefore despise not wine, which 
is capable of accomplishing such rare ends, which can raise 
phantasies such as were dreamed in the Rathskeller at Bremen.* 
No; we acknowledge the w^isdom of him who gave the wine 
to mankind, and of the good old patriarch who so thankfully 
received it. 



OLD NOAH. 

Noah from the ark had got, 
The Lord came to him on the spot ; 
He smelt his ofF'ring in the wind, 
And said to thee I will be kind. 
And since a pious house thou art, 
Thyself shalt name the gracious part. 

Then Noah answered, as he stood, 

" Dear Lord, this water smacks not good. 

Therefore I, poor old man, would fain 

Some different kind of drink obtain. 

Since that there hath been drowned therein 

All sinful beasts, and men of sin." 

To Paradise, God stretched his hand, 
And gave him thence a vine-stock grand; 
He gave him counsel good and right. 
Said, " Tend thou this with all thy might." 

* A tale of Hauff's under that name. 



288 DRINKING CUSTOMS 

He him instructed, — so, and so, — 
Till Noah's joy no bounds did know. 

Both wife and child did Noah call, 
His servants and his house-folks all. 
He planted vineyards all about — 
For, trust me, Noah was no lout ; 
Built cellars then, and pressed the wine, 
And tunned it into hogsheads fine. 

Old Noah was a pious man ; 

Soon to a row his barrels ran. 

To God's high praise he drained each cask, 

Nor deemed it, faith, a heavy task. 

He drank, thereafter, as appears, 

Three hundred yet and fifty years. 

A knowing man thence see it will, 
That wine well used, can do no ill. 
And farther, — that no Christian more 
Into his wine will water pour, — 
Because there hath been drowned therein, 
All sinful beasts, and men of sin. 



The Germans never despised their cups. Tacitus, in his time, 
said of them — " To drink day and night brings disgrace to no 
one." Tacitus might, in truth, have said pretty much the same 
of his own people. If in the beginning they mixed their wine 
with water, this is not to be taken as the fact in an after period. 
Who does not recollect the son of Cicero, the most celebrated 
drinker of his time, with whose exploits in tippling scarcely the 
Germans could match themselves, stout drinkers as they were? 
It is well known that the ancient Germans transacted their 
most important affairs when they were elate with Bacchus, and 
reconsidered them, the next day, with a sober understanding. 
This custom they retained, in many places, during the Middle 
Ages, and this was the case in the free city of Bremen. Wine 
and song have maintained their standing in every true Brother- 
hood, and this still continues to be the practice in Germany. 



OF THE STUDENTS. 289 

This ancient German custom then, least of all could be expected 
to be abandoned in Burschendom, and their songs are, for the 
most part, sung over the cup. 

We may here find a place for some words of Schluck's persi- 
flage on the Burschen-Comment. 

" The songs which are sung by the Commerses are called 
Burschen songs, and besides the students, nobody may sing 
them — since they, 

1. Are only composed in honour of the studentship; and, 

2. Are chiefly composed in Latin, as the language belonging 
to the learned." 

(This is no longer the case. Latin songs become daily rarer 
yet some still remain in use, as — Mi/ii est propositum.) 

" Should a Knote dare to sing a student song, he is to be well 
cudgelled; not so much on account of the excellence of the song, 
as on account of the audacity of the Phihstine, presuming to 
desecrate songs sacred to the students especially as it is impos- 
sible that he can have so much feeling as to appreciate the 
elegance and beauty of such songs." 

As the occasions on which men sing are very different, it is 
natural that the contents of the songs should be so too. Some 
contain — 

Firstly/. — An incitement to joy. Amongst these I reckon " Up 
Brothers, let us joyful be ;" or, an Exhortation to Friendship, as 
that bonne amitie song, with which a Commers is always opened, 
and whose object is solely to create a friendly feeling in the Old 
Burschen towards the Foxes. 

Secondly. — Others are Freedom and Fatherland songs ; 
amongst which, high above all, stands " The Landsfather." 

Thirdly. — Songs which express the spirit and bravery of the 
students ; as — " The Bursch of genuine Shot and Corn ;" or 
" The Sword on my left side :" " Know ye the happy way to 
conquer ;" " Brave 'tis 'neath the free blue Heaven," etc. One 
of these we may here give at length, as a 

25 



290 DRINKING CUSTOMS 



PICTURE OF THE OLD-FASHIONED BQRSCH, 

The Bursch of real shot and corn, 

His courage still doth bloom ; 
On heavy boot the spur is worn, 

From hat doth sway the plume. 

The huge hat makes a gallant show. 
With the sword cut through ;* 

It guards him more from thrust and blow, 
Than were it sound and new. 

The Bursch his ornament doth bear, 
Which him such pleasure brings, 

The sword which with a,fearful air 
Upon his left side swings. 

As Bursch, when through the town he stirs, 

Majestic in all eyes. 
The sparks they lighten round his spurs. 

And fire crossways flies. 

What careth he, though hole there be, 

Upon his elbow now ; 
The jolly Bursch remaineth he. 

Before whom all must bow. 

But wo to thee ! if on his course 

In perfumed garb thou rub ; 
He'll curse thee for Pomatum-horse, 

And threaten with his club. 

For friends still beats his heart so warm, 

He feels their grief and care ; 
For them he wields his mighty arm. 

Nor would his own life spare. 

* See the Special Commers. 



OF THE STUDENTS. 291 

Whoever saw him shrink a-back, 

Or do a coward deed 1 
Shame on him he would never take, 

Though kingdoms were the meed. 

They saw how in the battle-shock 

His flashing sword he drew ; 
They saw how from its sweep, like smoke. 

The slaves before him flew. 

Courage in danger and distress 

Is aye the conquering plan : 
Aye though all hell upon him press, 

He'll show himself a man ! 

Hears he of Hermann's spirit proud, 

Of his high deeds the fame, 
His German blood warns him aloud— 

" Be worthy of the name !" 

He drinks the German vine-juice bright, 

And German feels and great ; 
In his right arm dwells giant might, 

And freedom's his estate. 

Then live hoch ! every German mau 

Who thinks and speaks as he ; 
But they who falsehood basely plan, 

Extinguished may they be ! 

Weighs care upon his heart's repose, 

He takes his pipe so dear, 
And as the Knaster fumes and glows. 

All troubles disappear. 

He is a Bursch, — lives sansfacon 

Him all their friend may deem ; 
His heart is good, although we own 

At limes it different seem. 

Fair maids he wishes free from wrongs, 

With joy to their life's goal ; 
And lauds them still in all his songs. 

With all his heart and soul. 



292 DRINKING CUSTOMS 

See ! though all glasses empty stand, 

Full jugs to us appeal ; 
So send the wine from hand to hand. 

And drink the Bursch's weal. 

Already from the jug's full flood 

To glass the wine doth flow, 
And to our worthy Brotherhood, 

We'll sound this hearty hoch J 

Baden I call my Fatherland, 

As life I prize its weal ; 
Therefore I wear the Baden Band, 

And guard with hand and steel. 

Fourthly. — Others are drinking songs : as " Crambambuli, 
that is the title ;" or " When carousing I shall die ;" " The year 
is good, the brown beer thrives ;" " Bring vae blood of noble 
vines ;" " The dearest sweetheart that I have ;" " I have through- 
out the forenoon long ;" " I and my dear bottle ;" " Now sing in 
dulci jubilo ;" or that maiden song, in which the maiden is drunk 
for, while he who empties most measures is declared the con- 
queror, and entitled to marry the maiden ; while the rest cry 
and chorus, 

He's done it stout, he's done it stout, 
So will he not be laughed right out. 

And the maiden, who all the while is perfectly unconscious of 
these proceedings, and has given no consent to them, is de- 
clared to be won, and is pronounced to be the beloved of the 
victor. Ah, poor maiden ! so wouldst thou, not out of love, 
but truly contrary to thy will, be thrown into the arms of a 
drunkard ! 

This maiden song is now% to the honour of the studentship, 
quite out of use ; yet Zackaria describes such a scene as com- 
mon in the -days of his Renommist. 

And therefore filled he with beer that mighty glass, 
And drank it off the first unto that fair endearing — 



OF THE STUDENTS. 293 

A maiden yet whose name had scarcely met his hearing 
He held in hand, as sceptre, the solid room-door key, 
Thus acted he as chief, and to his realm gave he 
A sacred law, unpausing the measured draught to end ; 
And oft his judge's arm let the heavy key descend. 
Wo unto him who then this law as rebel brake, 
When he that thunder-word pro pcena, to him spake. 
Then must another measure his luckless throat o'erflow, 

Or stood he in great danger the damsel to forego. 
***** 

" But now, ye Brothers — hoch ! and let Selinda live. 
Vivat Selinda, hoch ! with roughest throats now roar, 
Vivat Selinda, hoch ! cry mightily once more ! 
Shout for the third time — hoch !" — the very room did quiver, 
And on the long wet table the glasses ring and shiver. 
As in old Homer's story, upon the Trojan plain. 
Mars, like ten thousand men, sent forth a cry of pain, 
Till the whole army trembled, with rock, and hill, and valley. 
So trembled now this chamber with this Studenten sally. 
Then Torf her lovely countenance with such a beauty draws. 
That each one swearing gave a thundering applause. 
The Renommist then cried — who inly now grew warmer — 
Here I myself do choose her — I choose her for my Charmer. 
" The fiend thou dost ?" said Torf, right loath to give her o'er, 
But Raufbold straight defied him to twenty choppins more. 
Torf yielded up the contest- — strength did his hope betray, 
And Leipsic's crown was thus far from the faint-heart drunk away. 

The Renommist. 

Certain songs belong to the conclusion of a Commers, or 
drinking meeting. With the last song, the glasses are turned 
upside down according to the old song, and the brother revellers, 
wish each other a good night. 

I take my dear glass in my hand 
And bear it to the Underland. 

I fetch again my glass so dear, 

And hold to th' right and to th' left ear. 

My glass unto my mouth set I, 
And drain it to the bottom dry. 
25* 



294 DRINKING CUSTOMS 

The right thing to the glass do we, 
What was above must under be. 

The glass must walk the land O ! 
From one to th' other hand O ! 

He who in drinking or sinking shoots a buck — that is, has 
broken the rule — must pro jjcsna, or in other words as a penalty, 
empty an extra choppin or two. ■ He who often associates him- 
self with a Commers, is called a Commers-brother. 



Give us a prime good glass, so will our praise be ample, 
Only be 't not too scant a sample ; 
For when on wine I must decide 
With mouth right full I'd have it tried. 

Goethe''s Faust. 

So thought the German students in earlier times, and so 
think they still. Drinking had reached a dreadful height in the 
Middle Ages, and many laws were passed, but in vain, to put a 
check on the madness. It was the same amongst the Burschen, 
who carried it to a most incredible extent. At the time that 
those students who were the best drinkers, were most regarded 
amongst their fellows in the universities, a Westphalian studying 
in Halle, made a visit to a countryman who was studying at 
Jena. The Jena student, to show his friend that he understood 
life, immediately on the first evening, called all his companions 
together, and they all drank to the welcome visiter so strongly 
in beer and wine, that on the following morning he had hardly 
slept off the effects of it before twelve o'clock. Scarcely had 
he dressed and despatched his dinner, when he was anew con- 
ducted to the drinking-place. Thus the revel continued for 
eight days in succession, when he travelled back to Halle. 
After his return he related many strange things of the mode of 
life of his countrymen in Jena, and always added — " Children, 
—it is very curious in Jena, — there is no forenoon there." 

Such madness is now gone by ; yet, ever and anon, there are 
students who might boldly challenge the gentlemen of the old 
school to a trial at toping, if they would rise out of their graves 



OF THE STUDENTS. 



295 



to it. Beer is the general beverage of the students, and as the 
best sorts of the same, as the Bavarian, and the formerly cele- 
brated Heidelberg beer, are not strong, the health of the con- 
sumer, even in a long-continued course, is not injured by it, as 
it is in other universities, v^^here, through the want of beer, wine 
and spirits are drunk. Beer, at the same time, is the cheapest 
liquor, and on that account is liked by the student not less than 
by the common man, amongst whom it is equally the custom 
to drink much. In one year, when the choppin (pint) of beer 
cost one-third of a penny, or, about half the usual price, a coach- 
man achieved a most extraordinary feat in drinking. Some 
students promised to pay for a hundred choppins if he would 
drink it with only short intervals. He accepted the offer, and 
had all the hundred measures set in a row on a bench. He 
drank the first, walked slowly to the end of the hall and back, 
drank off the second, and so on till finding not another drop, he 
said quietly to the landlord — " So, now let me have just another 
choppin for my money." 

The students drink generally beer at their Kneips, and if this 
is done in the open air, a large company is accustomed to 
pile up the emptied jugs into a pyramid. 

Not by trophies, marbled over, 
Will posterity discover 

What we brothers here have done ; 
But of triumph our memorial, 
These drained pitchers in their glory all, 

Pile, a pyramid of fun ! 

Hauff. 

At Commers, and on other festive occasions, are also fre- 
quently drunk wine, or ardent glee-wine and punch. It is a 
very ancient custom, amongst drinkers, that the glasses must 
be emptied after certain and manifold practices and prescrip- 
tions. Horace describes a similar wont in his time, where the 
drinkers are accustomed to elect a king, who presided on the 
occasion. Such rules are now become quite voluminous amongst 
the students, and are collected into their so-called Beer-Com- 



296 



DRINKING CUSTOMS 



ment. This, therefore, contains the guiding laws of the Beer- 
Court, We will give this Beer-Comment at the end of the 
volume, as an example of the elaborate style into which this 
old and deep-rooted custom of German student-life has come to 
be carried out. Strange as it may appear to other nations, it 
is a custom in Germany, old as the universities themselves; and 
as our object is to probe to the very bottom of student-life, and 
give a full and faithful portraiture of it, those of our sober 
readers who may not think these very wise or commendable 
laws, may, having read the rest of the book, there close it, 
without perusing this Beer-Code. We also precede the account 
of the Commerses with a collection of all the phrases which the 
Germans employ to clothe in a tolerable garb of decorum that 
dreamy condition into which Bacchus frequently throws his 
votaries. These modes of expression wer ecollected by Licht- 
enberg, and a few only have been added to them. 

HIGH GERMAN. 



He scents wine 
He has got a shot 
He is shot through 
He has got a blow 
He has got a touch ' 
He has got a Jesuit 
He has got too much 
He is tipsy- 
He is foggy 

He has got a saintish look 
He has a dizziness 
He is inspired 
He is full 
He takes a Bauer for an 

earth-bear 
His head is heavy 
He has dim eyes 
He is not right in the 

upper story 
He has glass eyes 
He rocks 



He has something in the 

roof 
He is full and furious 
He has his load 
He has been in a good 

spot 
He has something in his 

head 
He has enough 
He has got a bag-wig 
He has drunk a glass too 

much 
He has pept into the glass 

too deep 
He is illuminated 
He staggers 
His tongue is too heavy 
He can't lift his tongue 

any more' 
He floats 
He makes crosses 



He is sated 

He saw wooden cans in 

heaven 
He is up to his throat 

full 
He has made himself a 

beard 
He goes in a flourish 
He is well blessed 
He is loaded awry 
He has made himself 

black 
His house is haunted 
He tacks about 
He can't keep his legs 
He is funny 
He is well drunk 
He has been present 
He is ready 
He is off 
He is away 



OF THE STUDENTS. 



297 



He is happy 

He takes the sky for a 
bass viol 

He sees the letters dou- 
ble 

He is as sick as heaven- 
hail 

He is dull and full 

He has followed his own 
fancy 

He is a tout 

He has daubed himself 

He has a rattle 

He has a ditto 

He has round feet 

He has leaned too far 
over 

He is star-blind thick 

He yearns after the 
brandy bottle 

He has lamed his tongue 

He is as full as a bag- 
pipe 

He is lost 

He is covered 

He sees two suns 

He is thick as poodle- 
hail 



He goes as if all the 

houses were his 
He is totally away 
He sails with full sails 
He leans against the 

shutter 
He is poodle thick 
He has his tally 
He has his part 
He can't spit over his 

beard 
He makes a pasfrise 
He is thick 
He has had too much of 

a good thing 
He has been in his cups 
He has something in the 

top 
He is cat thick 
He has washed himself 
He has drammed himself 
He has done it pretty 

well 
He has taken good care 

of himself 
He has a giddiness 
He can scarcely stam- 



He has Moses' tongue 
He is led about 
He is under the table 
He takes a church-spire 

for a toothpick 
He has armed himself 

with a sword 
He has sprinkled his nose 
He has endowed himself 
They have buried him 
He is hail-blind full 
He stares like a stuck calf 
He looks like a duck in 

thunder 
He is be-kneipt 
He is split 
He doesn't come home 

alone 
He brings Geiselbrecht 

with him 
He is a drunken swine 
He falls off 
He is in dulci jubilo 
He has chopped beyond 

the line 
He is tufted 
He cannot walk in the 

line 



In the Low 
same subject. 



German are some fifty other phrases on the 



CHAPTER XVI. 



THE COMMERS. 



And there is grandfather, who, letters still extant. 
Though now somewhat ancient, give sure text on't. 
In many a Commers and Burschen-feast, 
As sword-bearing Prseses his fame increased. 

Preface to the Benomtnist. 



Our discourse shall now be of a beautiful feast of the Students 
— the Commers. We describe the Commers of the present day ; 
since in earlier times this festival bore another shape, and was 
disfigured by rude customs, so that we may justly say of the 
Commers, that it has not, like most other feasts, degenerated in 
the course of years, but has already improved itself. We will 
hereafter speak of these customs of an earlier time, and of some 
which in many places still remain, but which do not necessarily 
belong to the Commers. We understand by a Commers, as it 
now exists, a festive assembly, which consecrates itself by a 
higher tone and signification by the singing of " The Lands- 
father." 

The Commers is divided into the general and the special. In 
the former, the assembled Chores, and all other students who 
wish it, take part. In describing the constitution of a Chore, 
we have already spoken of these. In the special Commers, 
only a particular Chore, with all those that are attached to it, 
and such other members of other friendly Chores as are invited, 
take part The Commerses are distinguished into Entrance and 



THE COMMERS, 299 

Farewell Commerses, with which the Semesters open and close. 
The Fox-ride generally takes place at the Entrance-Commers. 
Each particular Chore, moreover, has its Foundation-Commers, 
on which it celebrates the anniversary of its establishment. 
Many Chores also are accustomed to hold a Commers in honour 
of the birthday of their Land Prince. 

First, of the General Commers. To this, assemble themselves 
all who take part in it, in a spacious room, either in the city or 
in its immediate neighbourhood. 

Those students who are not themselves in any Chore, attach 
themselves to one or other of them, and each Chore has its 
particular table ; and two presidents sit at the head of each 
table. The chief president is the Senior of that Chore which 
has the secretaryship. 

When the Commers shall begin, the presidents cry " ad 
loca !" which command every one must be careful to obey, if 
he would avoid the consequence of a beer penalty. In these 
Commerses, the rule is to drink beer, and this is called a Com- 
mers in beer. The chief president has now to give out the 
songs which shall be sung, and he also dictates the particular 
verses. Certain songs are on these occasions brought forward 
from time immemorial, as " Heidelberg, live thou ! hurrah 
hoch !" or the following, at a Farewell Commers. 



THE TRAVEL SONG. 

Away ! we have drunk it, the sparkling wine, 
Adieu, now, ye loved ones, to wander is mine. 
Adieu, now ye mountains, thou fatherly home, 
For mightily drives me the passion to roam. 
For mightily drives me the passion to roam. 

The sun in the heaven won't pause without change, 
But speeds on through lands and o'er oceans to range ; 
The wave will not cling to the same lonesome strand ; 
The storms, they go roaring with might through the land. 
—(The land). 



300 THE COMMERS. 

With clouds, fast careering, the bird floats along, 
And sings in the far-land its home-loving song ; 
Through forest and field so the Bursche is hurl'd, 
To be, like his mother, the wandering world. 
—(The world). 

There greet him the birds which beyond seas he knew ; 
From fields of his home-scenes 'tis here that they flew. 
The sweet flowers around him familiarly grow, 
In airs from his country, far wafted, they blow. 
—(They blow). 

The birds ! O well know they his father's own towers ; 
For garlands of love once he planted those flowers. 
And love, it still follows, still gives him the hand, 
And makes him a home in that furthermost land. 
—(That land). 



Before each president lies a drawn sword, with which, as 
signal of command, he strikes upon the table. It is forbidden 
to every one, on pain of a beer-penalty, to interrupt the song in 
any manner whatever. So now the singing and drinking go 
forward in regular course. At a later hour a supper is eaten, 
and the Commers is closed by the singing of " The Lands- 
father," after which there is no more singing, but it imme- 
diately becomes free to every one to stay and kneip on as long 
as he likes. 

When " The Landsfather" is to begin, the presidents com- 
mand " ad loca !" Every one must quietly take his seat, and 
it is allowed to no one, as otherwise commonly happens at 
kneipings, to take off his coat, and sit in his shirt-sleeves. All 
must be conducted solemnly and seriously. All voices join in— 



THE COMMERS. 39 1 



THE CONSECRATION SONG, OR LANDSFATHER. 



Silence all ye, each one call ye 

Unto solemn tones his ear ! 

Hark, the song of songs I raise now, 
German brothers, join in praise now, 

Sound it, sound it back a chorus clear ! 

Of your Fatherland the song ; 
Fatherland ! thou land so famous, 
Sacred to thy glory claim us ; — 
Germans proudly, swell ye loudly, 

We, our swords, to thee belong ! 

Life and living to thee giving, 

We are all prepared to bleed : 
Ready at each hour for dying. 
Death, with all his wounds defying. 
If our Fatherland it need. 

He who feels not ; he who zeals not. 
In true worth to be arrayed, — 

He shall not our bond dishonour ; 

This our Bride,* swear not upon her; 
Nor the German sword degrade. 

Song the proudest, swell it loudest ; 

Brave and German be we too ; 
See the consecrated band here, 
As brave Burschen take your stand here. 

And the free-cap strike ye through. 



* We have here introduced KOrner's idea for the sake of euphony. 
26 



302 THE COMMERS. 

See it gleaming-, softly beaming-, 

In my left this stain-free glave ; 
Thus I strike the cap through, swearing, 
Honour bright for ever wearing. 

Still to be a Bursche brave ! 

During the singing of the preceding stanzas, the two presi- 
dents hold their swords across each other, each holding his 
sword in his left hand, and placing the fingers of the right on 
it, to ratify the oath ; and this being done, they pierce their 
caps through, and leave them hanging on the swords. While 
they do this, all sing : 

Thus thou strik'st the cap through, swearing, 
Honour bright for ever wearing, — 
Still to be a Bursche brave ! 

Each president then sings thus to his next neighbour while he 
reaches him the cup: — 

Drinker ! swimming, bright o'erbrimming, 
Take this Fatherland ish cup ! 

The presidents give their swords each to their next neighbours. 
These, who sit opposite to each other, have risen from their 
seats, and now hold the swords which they have received from 
the presidents, crossed, over the table. The presidents continue 
their song : 

Thy left hand the keen sword bearing. 
Boring through the cap, and swearing — 
To thy country drink it up ! 

[Here they empty the cups. 

The two who have drunk now sing, — 

See it gleaming, softly beaming. 
In my left this stain-free glave ! 

All repeat — " See it gleaming, softly beaming," etc. 



THE COMMERS. 303 

Each of the two individuals sings on : — 

Thus I strike the cap throug^h, swearing, 
Honour bright for ever wearing, 
Still to be a Bursche brave! 

While all repeat this in chorus, the caps of the two are spitted 
on the swords to the former two. With the last words the 
presidents take back the swords, and as they hand the caps to 
the next two, sing, *' Drinker! swimming, bright o'erbrimming," 
etc. So go the presidents, repeating the same ceremony with 
each opposite two, till they reach the bottom of the table. 
Here they exchange with each other the swords, on which the 
assembled caps are hanging, but without changing their respec- 
tive sides of the table. As they do this each president sings: 

Come thou, drawn sword, consecrated, 

Of freemen the weapon free ! 
With transpierced caps thus freighted, 

Yield it solemnly to me. 
Let us gaily it discumber, 

Cover each one now his head ; 

And unspotted in his bed, 
Till next feast-day let it slumber. 

All sing — Up ! ye feast companions, guard them, 

All our hallowed rites and fair; 
All your heart and soul award them, 

As stout men should ever dare ! 
To the feast, ye brothers valiant, — 

Worthy of your fathers, stand ! 
And may he ne'er wield the brand. 

But who noble is and gallant ! 

Each president now reaches across the table to the brother 
sitting opposite to him, his cap, which he has taken off the 
sword, and stretches the sword over his covered head; both 
the presidents singing : — 

So take it back ; — 
Thv head I now will cover, 



304 THE COMMERS. 

And stretch the sword it over, 
"" And live to this our Brother, hoch 5 

A dog's-foot who insult him shall ! 
Wherever we shall meet him. 
We'll aye, as Brother greet him. 
And live to this our Brother, hoch ! 

While all are singing, the president reaches to him whose 
head he has covered, his right hand. The presidents thus 
gradually, and in succession, cover all heads, till they have 
again arrived at that place at the table where they have pre- 
sided. Returned thither, they cover each other under the same 
ceremonies. In conclusion, all sing : — 

Rest thee from the Burschen feast-rites. 

Now, thou dedicated brand, 
And be each one's high endeavour — 

Freedom for his Fatherland ! 
Hail to him who still is haunted 

With his father's fame in field ; 
And the sword may no one wield, 

But the noble and undaunted ! 

This is the simple description of a Commers, as it is now 
celebrated ; and when we ask what it is which distinguishes the 
Commers from other festive meetings, the reply must be, that it 
consists in the singing of " The Landsfather," as its solemn and 
ceremonial conclusion. To this celebration we certainly are 
not at all disposed to refuse our approbation. It contributes 
strongly to maintain a unity amongst the students, divided and 
subdivided as they are into different Chores, and separated 
again from the private people — as the Camels, as a more polite 
name, are called. They contribute to bring back to the con- 
sciousness of every one, that Germany, though separated into 
so many states and territories, is yet Or^e Germany ! The hole 
which is pierced in the cap is at once a symbol of death of the 
Fatherland, and a memorial of Commers pleasures enjoyed in 
companionship with those of many names and places. 

In order to bring under notice certain customs of the Com- 



THE COMMERS. . 395 

merses, which, however, are not general, and which in recent 
years at least have not been practised in Heidelberg, we may 
here give the regulations of the Beer-Comment thereupon, and 
which indeed take up the Comment, where it will be found left 
off at the end of this volume, and conclude it. 



TITULUS X. 



OF THE BEER-COMMERS. 



Section 142. — Beer-Burschen alone can preside, and out-to- 
be-fought Branders, who then, as presidents, have unlimited 
power. (By out-to-be-fought Branders, are to be understood 
those who, in this same Commers, shall be advanced to Young 
Burschen.) 

Section 143. — The Beer-commers proceed in the following 
manner. After the presidents have cried, " ad loca !" and every 
one has seated himself, they command silence, and every one^ 
must pay the strictest attention to this command, upon which 
the song begins. 

Section. 144. — When the song is ended, one of the presidents 
cries " SmolUs, ye brother presidents," which is answered by the 
other presidents, with " Fiducit and SmolUs, gentlemen ;" upon 
which all the commanders answer " Fiducit.''^ 

SmolUs is, in this place, a kind of salutation ; whence comes 
the word Smolliren, by which it is understood that the parties 
drink to a brotherhood ; so that the two new friends or brothers, 
from this time forward, instead of the polite term " You," use 
to each other the familiar word " Thou." When two indivi- 
duals smolliren with each other, it is thus performed. The two 
kling, or touch their glasses together, drink them quite off, and, 

26* 



306 THE COMMERS. 

then reach to each other the right hand, saying to each other, 
" Be thou my friend." 

When this is done with a number in a Kneipe, they are accus- 
tomed, holding the glass in one hand, to link that arm with the 
other arm of the new Thou-brother, and thus turning and cross- 
ing to touch each other's glasses and drink them off, as already 
it is described in the Renommist. 



The hands to the Smollis, entwined thus crossing — 
" Fiducit, Sir Brother," together anstossing.* 

It is the custom in some universities, that all students address 
each other with " thou." This is called the " Thou-comment," 
in contradistinction to others ; as Heidelberg, where the " You- 
comment" is in use. But students who in any manner are often 
associated in parties of enjoyment, will soon become " Thou- 
brothers," and it arises of itself amongst those who are of the 
same Chore. Therein it is the custom that the younger student 
always offers the Smollis to the elder ; if the contrary happens, 
it must be regarded as a peculiar favour. That in the very diffe- 
rent paths of life which succeed the university-years, it must 
give occasion to some singular scenes, when the early uni- 
versity-companions, who so quickly knit this kind of bond of 
amity, in after-life find themselves together again, and are 
obliged to use towards each other their familiar " Thou," we 
may well imagine. 

Section 145. — After this, the song is sung " The Foxes under 
the bann have gone." Upon which the Crass-Foxes, with bare 
heads, standing up, must each drink off half a choppin ; the 

* Touching their glasses. The humorous Schluck says that SchmoUis is by 
some derived from the obsolete word Schmollen — to blow one's-self up, to make 
one's-self great; that is, before another, by drinking. Schmollen, at the same 
time means to be angry, to make a face, etc. ; meanings, however, which are not 
to the purpose. Others derive it from the two syllables, Schmal aus (schmalus, 
schmollis,) equivalent to clean out, that is, the glass to the last drop, as the old 
song says — " There remains not a nail's proof even within." 



THE COMMERS. 307 

Brand-Foxes, with bare heads, sitting, must drink each a 
choppin. 

Section 14G. — When the song is sung, one president asks the 
rest, " Has any of the brother presidents any thing to dictate, or 
to recommend 1" Wliereupon, each of the presidents dictates 
or commands to them who have disturbed in any manner the 
song or the Commers. But they may not command to any one 
more than two choppins at one time. 

Section 147. — If any one does not drink the quantity dictated 
to him within five minutes, the president has the right, without 
further proceeding, to write him down on the Beer-tablet as a 
Beer-schisser. The quantity which he has yet to drink is to be 
added to the four choppins. Yet is the Beer-schisser regarded 
during the Commers as Beer-honourable. 

Section 148. — If the presidents declare that they have nothing 
further to recommend or to dictate, there follows a short pause, 
during which each Beer-Bursch can fore-drink to the presidents, 
what these have immediately to after-drink. But during this 
pause the quantity fore-drunken to any one of the presidents 
must not exceed four choppins. 

Section 149. — If all is now drunk, the presidents may dictate 
nothing further, but they close the presidentship with the ex- 
clamation — " Ex est ! Colloquium .'" 

Section 150. — There may be no fore-drinking during the presi- 
dentship, except to the presidents during the pause after their 
dictation and the commendation. 

As already stated, these customs, which must always precede 
the singing of " The Landsfather," are not every where observed 
in Commers, and do not necessarily belong to them. In earlier 
times, the word Commers had a wider comprehension. It meant, 
in general, a convival meeting, in which a president had the 
direction and control of the singing and drinking. The meet- 
ings were often of a very rude character, and if we even do 
not hold up the Commerses of the present day as specimens 
of temperance, yet they acquire a nobler sentiment from the 
solemnity of " The Landsfather." To those earlier Commerses, 



308 THE COMMERS. 

rather than to the present, apply those satirical remarks in 
the Dissertation of the Old Schluck. He makes these obser- 
vations : — 

" A Commers is a drinking-meeting, in which a number of 
students elect one from amongst themselves,' under whose presi- 
dency to sing and drink. The drinking goes on partly at their 
own cost, and partly at the cost of others. He who invites 
others, as guests, and pays the shot (schmaust),* is styled host, 
or hospes, from hoc and spes ; as if some one should say, I have 
placed my hope on him. He who directs the drinking-meeting, 
is president. 

" A Commers is more or less strict. It is a strict Commers 
when the members of the company mutually pledge themselves 
faithfully to perform whatever the president commands, be it 
even with danger of life. The signs of the unlimited power of 
the president, are — 

(1) A sceptre, generally a house-door key,j- with wiiich he 
either dispenses with drinking, or exhorts the dehnquent to drink 
or sing, or finally points out the defaulters. 

(2) A naked sword, which is laid on the table, and with which 
the disobedient are compelled to obedience. Hereupon it is 
clear : 

{a) That no one, without the permission of the president, may 
stand up. If any one withdraws himself, without having asked 
permission aloud, he must, for his culpable stiffneckedness, drink 
from two to four glasses. 

(b) That no one may refuse to drink the glasses which are 
dictated to him, since, as shown above, he is pledged to obe- 
dience, even at the risk of his life. Qiiere — Can one who has 
drunken so much that he falls dead in the Commers be obliged 
to drink more ? Answer — No ! since death discharges all obli- 
gations." 

These Commerses, of an earlier and ruder time, are dis- 

* Remark of the translator of Schluck's Latin. " This is false. No real student 
does pay his shot." 

t A stick, or rather a cudgel, but a rapier is the most reasonable. 



THE COMMERS. 3O9 

carded. In the Renommist such a one is described, and it 
concludes with these lines : 

Worn fairly out with song, with drinking and with noise, 

Go reeling now along, those three wild roaring boys. 

Mid shattered pipes and glass, their staggering way they strive, 

Till in the distant market, by lamplight they arrive. 

As other men awake, to bed they take their flight, 

And bellow to each other — " Sir Brother, a good-night !" 



CHAPTER XVII. 



THE SPECIAL COMMEES. 



Bumpers in our left-hands draining', 
We will drink thy long maintaining, 

Ancient, jovial Burschendom ! 
Swords in our right hands extending, 
We will fight for thy defending, 

Free and gallant Burschendom ! 

Hauff. 

These lines of HaufF's, who himself enjoyed in Tiibingen 
the pleasures of the Burschendom with a fresh spirit, express 
the sentiments which altogether in the life of the student, but 
especially in its most beautiful feast, the Commers, are felt and 
abound. We have described the General Commers; and we 
have now to make our readers acquainted with the so-called 
Special Commers, that which each individual corps celebrates 
at the commencement and conclusion of each Semester. These 
Commerses are seldom held in the city. We see a jocund train 
issuing forth from one of the city gates. A troop goes before 
on horseback, who, in earlier times, were still more distin- 
guished by their peculiar style, but who still may sometimes be 
seen in full costume, that is, in buckskins and huge jack-boots, 
Polonaise frocks ; on their heads, their Cerevis caps ; over their 
breasts, wearing the broad Chore-band, while they carry in 
their right hands their naked swords. The rest follow them in 
carriages drawn by two or four horses ; or the Senior precedes 
in a four or six-horse equipage, and the rest follow in two-horse 



THE SPECIAL COMMERS. 



311 



ones. In their customary negligent student-dress, they lounge 
at their ease in their carriages, smoking their long pipes. The 
Foxes show themselves especially consequential, since it is the 
first time that they have been privileged to present themselves 
to the eyes of the astonished world in such a public procession. 
The Pawk-doctor is always invited to this festivity, and fre- 
quently honours the Chore with his presence ; but the Red 
Fisherman is an invariable attendant, arrayed in the oddest 
style, as the black frock-coat, and his other habiliments, by no 
means correspond with the open breast and outlying shirt. He 
is generally posted as servant behind the last carriage. 

If now the reader were, on such a day, already at Neckar- 
steinach, so might he, from the little pavilion in the garden of 
the Gasthouse* of the Harp, right commodiously observe the 
approach of such a train, as it emerges from one of the windings 
of the road which follows the serpentine course of the Neckar, 
and permits him even from afar to see the flashing of the drawn 
swords, and the shimmering of the coloured caps and Chore- 
bands. Or he sees the new guests approaching in a barge 
which they have mounted at Neckargemi'md, where they have 
left their horses and carriages. The barge is hung with gar- 
lands and festoons, pennons stream from the masts ; the sons of 
the Muses, in their many-coloured costume, are picturesquely 
grouped, and some of them are singing in the overflowing of 
their spirits to the sound of the jocund music. 

The inhabitants see gladly these guests arrive in the place ; 
as the Burschen, on one such day, make a greater expenditure, 
or in common parlance, moult more feathers than as many 
honourable inhabitants of the little town do in a whole year. 
On this account, their approach is first announced to the spec- 
tator in the garden of the Harp, by the firing of small cannon, 
which are planted for the purpose of doing all possible honour 
to these high guests, on the Dielsberg, a town opposite, situated 
on a lofty conical hill, where the earliest view of the approaching 
train is obtained, and by others fired from one of the old castles 

* Inn. 



312 THE SPECIAL 

of Neckarsteinach. The garden of the inn now speedily swarms 
with the jovial Burschen, who here play off all sorts of pranks 
and whinis. 

But within, the whole house is in the most universal bustle. 
House-servants and waiters run to and fro ; in the kitchen all 
the hands of the cooks are in active agitation, in order to fulfil 
the command of the landlady. There will sit a sleepy maid 
nodding in a chair, since for two days, that is, since the Com- 
mers was announced to them, there has been no sleep in the 
eyes of any of the ministering spirits ; but she is quickly roused 
up with a vengeance in order to assist in the general activity. 
All, however, is still and solitary in the yard; for the poor 
feather-cattle have been compelled to yield up their young lives 
in order to parade on the table of these honoured and swarming 
guests. Above, in the great hall, is a long table covered. 
Every window is adorned with green and flowery garlands and 
festoons, and at that end of the hall where the seat of honour is 
placed, there is emblazoned on the wall the great and painted 
coat-of-arms of the Verbindung, embellished with flowers and 
ribands. The musicians now take their places in the orchestra 
above; the sons of the Muses appear in the hall, and the feast 
is opened. After the cloth is drawn the proceedings at table are 
such as we have described in the General Commers, except that, 
at this Commers, no beer is drunk, but wine only; and you 
may soon hear the report of outflying Champagne corks, as the 
toasts of the Chore are given, or those upon and connected with 
the Land Prince, when the Commers is celebrated on his birth- 
day. 

In the so-called Foundation Commers, it is customary for the 
Senior to deliver a short speech, in which he takes a review of 
the fortunes of the Verbindung, or Chore, from its establishment, 
and particularly mentions the names of those who have be- 
longed to it, and are now gone forth from it into busy life. 

As they do not return from such a Commers, at the earliest, 
till the noon or the evening of the next day, all kind of follies 
and madcap playfulness are resorted to, to make the time pass 
merrily. Amongst these may be classed the " Lord of Fools." 



COMMERS. 313 

A great throne is built up of tables and chairs, upon which one 
of the students is placed. He is equipped as a king, with his 
crown, sceptre, and other insignia. The others are his devoted 
subjects, who bring him a great humper, or large glass, such as 
every Chore possesses. The Prince of Fools now sings : — • 



THE PRINCE OF FOOLS. 

Prince. — I am the Prince of fooling, 
Here, o'er the topers ruling ; 
And ye the gods do send on, 
My Princeship to attend on. 

All.— To wait on your divineness. 
With wine of every fineness. 
That's why we here are standing, 
All at your dread commanding. 

Prince. — Ye sportsmen with your thunder 
Shoot me the foxes under, 
And ye there all before us, 
Blow in your horns a chorus. 

All. — 'fth horn, 'ith horn, 'ith hunter's horn, 
'Ith horn, 'ith horn, 'ith hunter's horn, 
Drink off, drink off, thou Prince of Fools, 
Drink off, drink off, thou Prince of Fools. 



As they sing this, he empties his humper. 

The Prince. — What helps me now my lofty throne. 
My sceptre, and my Burschen-crown 1 
What helps me now my high command 1 
I lay it down in N. N.'s hand ! 

He now descends from the throne, and the next takes his 
place, till it has thus gone the whole round. 

27 



314 THE SPECIAL 

The convivial meeting sits till late in the night ; and the next 
day they amuse themselves with all kinds of frolics and merri- 
ments, in which the Red Fisherman often becomes the butt of 
no gentle jokes. They sometimes make processions through 
the village at the head of which one of them rides on the back 
of the Red Fisherman, or on an ass. They climb the neigh- 
bouring ruined castles, which are perched on the mountains, 
and let their songs thence resound over the country. 

These gambols and outbreaks of youthful spirits, full of life, 
strength, and enjoyment, and which thus are ready to overleap 
all bounds in the excitement of leaving behind for a day or so 
all study, and giving themselves up in fine weather, and beau- 
tiful scenery, to the full swing of their fancies and feelings, 
especially such a troop of youngsters being together, have 
always characterized the students. An old popular ballad de- 
scribes their pranks in these rural Commerses, as far back as 
1650; probably then a little more freely indulged in than at 
present. 

WAYS OF THE STUDENTS. 

Queer chaps are these students, say folks every where, 
Although you should have them but once in the year ; 
They make in the village such riot and reek. 
There's nought else left for us but plague for a week. 

Now must we be caring for St. Mary's day, 
And every one is wishing that Galli come may ; 
Then come they with swords and fowling-pieces too, 
And make in the village a horrid to-do. 

There's nothing then in safety ; no pigeon, no hen, 

As though they were made but for plunder of men ; 

No goose dare even venture out into the meadow, 

These gents with their swords would soon whip off its head oh. 

Are gardens with boards and bars all fenced too 1 
They burst them asunder that the sun doth shine through; 
In clambering for apples the trees too they break, 
'Tis well if each home but a pocketful take. 



COMMERS. 315 

With fire and with powder we're in constant fears, 
That e'en our small house be burnt over our ears ; 
Their crackers they let on our roofs hop and bound, 
And a devil cares not though they burn to the ground. 

Has one a good dog by his house-door to stay, 
And that from his chain could not break away, 
Straight let they him loose, when, troth 'twere no need, 
Potz hagel ! they've shot, and the poodle is dead ! 

Students 'ith Wirthshouse, are jolly and able, 

For all that they need is a great mighty table ; 

They drink and they shout, as the house theirs had been ; 

They drink and they cry till they're sky-blue and green. 

Now they talk Lapodeinish !* I know not what 'tis ; 
But one knows very well, it is we that they quiz — 
Now they dance in the market, they leap and they play, 
And take from the hinds their own dance-place away. 

Then turn the men-servants, and cudgel them out, 
Till like mice they are running the streets all about ; 
They gather to battle in furious throngs. 
And smite, lunge, and cry with right deafening lungs. 

Then they're off through the fields with their play to undo them, 
'Tis just as if thunder should tear its way through them, 
They tread down the corn-field, they don't understand. 
What 'tis to eat black bread raised by their own hand. 

Is a horse in the meadow, his strength to recruit 1 
The students soon seize on the poor weary brute, 
They're up, and their heels in his sides go ding-dong, 
Ah ! might he, at least, but go slowly along ! 

Two centuries have produced a proportionate improvement 
in the students ; though as full of fun as ever, the country 
people have nothing like the w^anton mischief here recorded to 
fear from them. 

The Commers then, being brought to a close, they generally 

. *Lateinisch (Latin.) 



316 THE SPECIAL 

return by boat to the city of the Muses. If this is in the 
evening, the barge is illuminated, and when they approach the 
city, fireworks are played off. As they land they proceed to 
their Kneip, and there wind up the feast. On the arrangements 
of a Kneip, nothing further is necessary to be said, as we, in 
becoming acquainted with the Beer-tablet, beheld the only 
particular in which it differs from other drinking-places ; but, 
in speaking of the different drinks that are consumed in a 
Kneiping, we must not forget the Crambambuli. In order to 
prepare this liquor, an earthenware dish is used, into which a 
sufficient quantity of sugar is poured, and it is then filled up 
with rum. It is then set fire to ; and the company, who sit 
round the flaming dish, sing — 



& 



THE CRAMBAMBULI SONG. 

Crambambuli, this is the title 

Of that good drink we love the best, 

It is the means of proof most vital, 
When evil fortunes us molest. 

In evening late, in morning free, 

I drink my glass Crambambuli. 

Have I into the inn ascended, 
Most like some noble cavalier 1 

I leave the bread and roast untended, 
And bid them bring the corkscrew here. 

Then blows the coachman — trantanti — ■ 

Unto a glass Crambambuli. 

Are head and stomach both distracted ; 

For eating have I little zest ; 
A plaguy cold have I contracted ; 

Have I catarrh within my chest 1 
What need the doctor trouble me, 
I drink my glass Crambambuli ! 

Were I a prince of power unbounded, 

Like Kaiser Maximilian, 
For me were there an order founded, 

'Tis this device I'd hang thereon : — 



COMMERS. 317 

Toujours fidele, et sans souci, , 

C'est I'ordre du Crambambuli ! 

Comes there no bill my needs to better 1 

Have I at play my money lost] 
My maiden, writes she not a letter! 

Come grievous tidings by the post 1 
Then drink I, from anxiety, 
A brimming glass Crambambuli. 

Ah ! if the dear old folks but knew it, 

How we young Gents, their sons, were stead, 

How we must pinch and sorely rue it, 
They'd weep till their old eyes were red. 

Whilst make themselves the Filii 

So bene by Crambambuli. 

And has the Bursch his cash expended 1 

To sponge the Philistine's his plan. 
And thinks it folly all extended. 

From Burschen unto Beggarman. 
Since this is the philosophy 
In spirit of Crambambuli. 

Shall I for fame and freedom stand then ; 

For Burschen weal the sword lift free"? 
Quick blinks the steel in my right hand then, 

A friend will stand and second me. 
To him I say, Mon cher ami, 
Before a glass Crambambuli. 

It grieves me sore, ye foolish-hearted, 

That ye love not, and drink not wine; 
To asses are ye now converted. 

And might be angels all divine. 
Drink water like the cattle free. 
And think it is Crambambuli. 

Crambambuli, it still shall cheer me, 

When every other joy is past. 
When o'er the glass Friend Death draws near me, 

And mars my pleasure at the last. 
I'll drink with him in companie 
The last glass of Crambambuli. 
27* 



318 THE SPECIAL COMMERS. 

Then who 'gainst us, Crambambulisten, 
His spiteful mouth with envy screws, 

We hold him for no kind of Christian, 
Since he God's blessings doth abuse. 

I'd give him, though for life cried he. 

No single drop Crambambuli. . 



During the singing the rum has burnt out, and the beverage, 
of a syrupy consistence, is ladled into the glasses. At eleven 
o'clock at night, which is the hour of the police, the kneips are 
closed. For some years it has been the practice in Heidelberg 
that a bell should be rung at this hour, which should be the 
signal for all landlords to close their houses. At first this order 
received much opposition from the students, and they endea- 
voured to make it ridiculous. As the order was, that at eleven 
the bells should be rung, on its first appearance in the Heidel- 
berg wochenblatt (newspaper), at this hour all the dogs of the 
students ran about the city with bells hung to their necks, and 
their masters, to fulfil the order to the letter, began, to the terror 
and amaze of the inhabitants, to set all the bells of the private 
houses in full swing. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

NEW year's eve. 



The year's last hour retreating-, 
Peals out with solemn sound ; 

Drink brothers ! your last greeting-, 
And wish him blessings round. 

'Tis gone ! with gray years blended, 

That are for ever ended. 

It brought much gladness, many woes. 

And leaves us nearer to our close. 



The last evening of the year had arrived. It found the two 
friends Hoffmann and Freisleben in the room of the latter, 
where the friends were accustomed gladly to assemble. " Shall 
I light the lamp?" asked Freisleben. "No! let us sit in the 
dark. When the eye does not distract itself with outward ob- 
jects, it then turns with delight to those images which memory 
brings before the mind." So the two sate; and they thought 
over all which this year had given and taken away; on all, 
after which they had striven, and which they had achieved ; 
and on much, after which they had desired to strive and 
accomplish. Each was lost in this internal review, and the 
silence was only broken by one of the friends being so power- 
fully seized with the recollection of the past, that he must com- 
municate his feeling to the other. " So then," said Freisleben, 
" another year of this beautiful university life is over ! and 



320 THE STUDENT'S 

when I call to mind that this year is a quarter, or a fifth of the 
whole, the words of a German writer are irresistibly forced 
upon me : — ' The world may easily roll on, as it has hitherto 
done, yet for a million years ; and in that period, five thousand 
years would be exactly proportionate to a quarter of a year in 
the life of a man of fifty, — scarcely a twelfth of our university 
life r What have I done in the last quarter of a year 1 Eaten, 
drunken, electrified, made a calendar, laughed over the tricks 
of a kitten, and so are five thousand years of this little world 
run out, in which I move !" 

HorrMANN. — Away with this calculation ! To embellish the 
life of our friends, and to enjoy ourselves that life cheerily, that 
is the business of existence. 

Freisleben. — The time spent at the university is certainly 
the most lovely time of our life ; but even in that I am amazed 
to-day how one can be so merry, when one recollects how 
much more of unpleasant than pleasant the year has brought. 

Hoffmann. — There I differ. Past pain is pleasant in me- 
mory, and past pleasure is pleasure both future and present. 
Thus, it is only present and future pain that troubles us; a 
strong presumption of a sensible preponderance of enjoyment 
in the world, which is augmented by this circumstance, that 
we are constantly endeavouring to create enjoyment, whose 
fruition we can, in many cases, foretell with tolerable certainty, 
while, on the contrary, future pain can be much seldomer prog- 
nosticated exactly. 

" Yes, to be sure ! That is now clear, and I understand it," 
said Von Kronen, who had caught the end of this demonstra- 
tion, " but that on which I have been reflecting is not yet clear 
to me. Perhaps you gentlemen who to-day are in so philoso- 
phical a mood can enlighten me upon it." 

Freisleben. — What will come of it then 1 

Von Kronen. — The phenomenon is one of the most myste- 
rious in nature. Yet — 

Hoffmann. — Only out with it ! 

VoN Kronen. — Tell me then how it comes to pass that cats 
have holes in their skins exactly where their eyes are? 



NEW YEAR'S EVE. 321 

Hoffmann. — Thou "whimsical herring ! 

Von Kronen. — Without a joke, this is one of the three 
riddles that I will lay before you. If you can solve them, you 
shall smoke the whole evening genuine Havanna cigars, that I 
have received from Hamburgh as a Christmas present. 

Freisleben. — That's worth something ! 

Hoffmann. — Samiel, help ! 

Von Kronen. — The first you have ; so solve it. 

Freisleben. — I will explain it to thee. The nose has here 
stretched the skin too much outwards, so that it has cracked it 
on both sides, exactly where the eyes are. 

VoN Kronen. — Well hit ! Now for the second. Why do 
the hares sleep with open eyes ? 

Hoffmann. — Because their skin is too short to permit them 
to shut their eyes. 

VoN Kronen. — Bravo ! Now the third. Where go the 
cats when they are three years old ? 

Hoffmann. — With thy confounded cats ! If the talk was of 
foxes, or of some other reasonable cattle 1 

Von Kronen. — Yes ! dear Lord Abbot* put it together, or I 
must pronounce sentence of asses on you. 

Hoffmann. — Stop ! I have it. They go into their fourth 
year ! 

VoN Kronen : — 

O damsel ! O damsel ! O damsel ! now marry J thee, 
, Now marry I thee ! 

Mr. Traveller enters. — How are you, gentlemen 1 What 
an Egyptian darkness there is in the streets ! It was all I could 
do to find the house. 

Hoffmann.— There is moonshine in the calendar to-day. 

Freisleben. — The police regulations in our city are very 
much like the clapper-mills in the cherry-trees. They stand 

* Burger's Abbot, with the king's three questions. The same legend as the 
Abbot of Canterbury and King John. 



322 THE STUDENT'S 

still when the rattle is most needed, and make a terrible larum 
when, on account of the high wind, the sparrows don't come. 

Von Kronen. — Tell me, Hoffmann, can a man blush red in 
the dark ? 

Hoffmann. — Another hard question ! That a man may be- 
come pale with fear in the dark, I can believe ; but blush red 
scarcely, since a man may be pale of himself, but blush only 
on account of himself and another. 

VoN Kronen. — Ay, that is true ; but the question whether 
ladies can become red in the dark is a very difficult question ; 
at least, one that cannot be settled in the light. 

Freisleben. — Ask the magistrate why he does not light the 
streets better ; that would be much more serviceable than these 
subtleties. 

Von Kronen. — Dear Freisleben, in a country where the 
eyes of people who are in love shine in the dark, there is no 
need of lanterns. 

Freisleben. — For thy satirical impertinence thou shalt go 
into the streets with me, on a voyage of discovery after some 
red wine. We will make booty of some bottles in one of the 
kneips, and then manufacture some glee-wine. It will relish 
with the cigars. 

Mr. Traveller. — Capital ! Hoffinann ! let us hasten out too. 
We will buy sugar and spices. 

Hoffmann. — Good ! So every one makes himself a useful 
member of society. 

In a short time all were again assembled ; the table was 
moved forward to the stove. A light odour of cigars filled the 
room, and the wine, which was played around by the flames in 
the little coffee-kettle, began to sing. The cloves were now 
thrown in, the guests each took sugar, and Freisleben filled the 
glasses. Hoffmann had brought a guitar with him, and accom- 
panied on it the following song : — 

Down, down with the sorrows 

And troubles of earth ! 
For what is our life made 

But drinkinof and mirth! 



NEW YEAR'S EVE. 

Drink, and be glad, sirs, 

Laugh and be gay ; 
Keep sober to-morrow, 

But drink to-day ! 

Love's a deceiver, — 

He'll cheat if he can ; 
Sweet innocent woman 

Is wiser than man ! 

Trust her not, trust her not, 

She will deceive ! 
Who wins her may gather 

The sea in a sieve ! 

Laying up money 

Is labour and care ; 
All you have toiled for 

Is spent by the heir ! 

Knowledge is wearisome, 

Save when the wise 
Study whole volumes 

In beautiful eyes ! 

So, down with the sorrows 

And troubles of earth ! 
For what was our life made 

But drinking and mirth ! 

Then drink and be glad, sirs. 

Laugh and be gay ; 
Keep sober to-morrow, 

But drink to-day. 

" Seven Temptations." By Mrs. Howitt. 



323 



All repeat the last verse, and drink. 

Freisleben. — Mr. Traveller, that song originates in your 
Fatherland. She who v^rote it shall " live-hoch !" (They 
touch glasses.) Now, Von Kronen, let us have a German one. 



324 THE STUDENT'S 

Von Kronen sings : — 

THE SONG OF WINE. 

The song of wine is short and fine, 
And joy and drinking doth combine. 
Oh ! he who cannot sing it yet, 
Will learn it now we here are met. 

The song of wine, etc. 

Ye chat not long your cups among ; 
Wine fires the spirit into song, 
He who can sing, high be his laud, — 
He who sings not can hum accord. 

Ye chat not long, etc. 

Wine clears the blood, gives bolder mood, 
And makes the heart all mild and good. 
Wine is the death-blow to old Care ! 
A glorious call to do and dare ! 

Wine clears, etc. 

The wine-elate, without estate. 
And without castle 's rich and great. 
Yes, gods we are when wine flows clear, 
And old Olympus yet stands here. 

The wine-elate, etc. 

Join hand in hand; in Bacchus' land 
All men are free, and equal stand. 
O magic drink! thou noble wine! 
The golden age for ever's thine. 

Join hand in hand, etc. 

Freisleben. — Our absent friends shall live ! (They touch 
glasses.) 

Mr. Traveller. — Will they return soon ? 

Von Kronen. — We expect them to-morrow, and their Christ- 
mas presents, which their Frau Mamma and Mamsel have 
given them. Pittschafft will be well packaged again, who 
would not on any account fail to spend his Christmas-eve in his 
Father-city. 



NEW YEAR'S EVE. 325 

Mr. Traveller. — The exchange of gifts at Christmas, as it 
is practised in Germany, pleases me much ; and I am especially- 
delighted with the Christ-tree. 

Voiv Kronert. — Have you seen the huge tree at the Sattler- 
miillerei,* where the Hanseatic students hold their Christmas '? 

Mr. Traveller. — No. Do the students then also present 
each other with Christmas gifts 1 

Vox Kronen. — One or other of the Chores frequently amuse 
themselves with this sport. I recollect that a society to which 
I belonged agreed to exchange Christmas gifts, of which none 
was to cost more than six kreutzer — twopence English money. 
The most droll things imaginable were brought on the occasion. 

Hoffmann. — The glee-wine is famous; it warms one right 
through and through. Let us sing a beautiful song. He plays 
and all sing. 



TABLE-SONG. 

FROM GOETHE. 

Heavenly joy entrances me 

Far beyond exploring ; 
Shall it one day bear me up 

To the star-lands soarintj'? 
Yet, in truth, remaining here, 

JVTore is to my liking ; 
By the wine-glass and the song — 

On the table striking. 

Friends, I pray ye, wonder not 

At my thus deciding; 
For no blessing yet is like — 

On the earth abiding. 
Therefore swear I solemnly, 

Without all concealing, 
That I shall not recklessly 

Out of life be stealing. 

* The Wirthshaus of Sadler Muller. 
28 



326 THE STUDENT'S 

But as here we all have met 

Time to speed with pleasure ; 
Should, methinks, the Beakers chime 

To the Poet's measure. 
Good friends must, a hundred miles, 

Move from one another ; 
Therefore you met here, stosst-an 

Brother as with Brothej ! 

Live then he who is of peace 

And of good a donor ! 
First and foremost to our king-. 

His of right's the honour, 
'Gainst all enemies, the state, 

Still he doth defend it; 
To uphold it planneth much; 

Much more to extend it. 

Now the next, salute I her, — 

Her the true alone one I 
And let each, as gallant knight. 

Think upon his own one. 
Should a lovely maiden guess 

Her of whom I'm thinking; 
Let her archly nod to me — 

To her own love drinking. 

' To our friends ! — the two or three — 

^ Be the third cheer voiced. 
Who with us in sunny days 

Quietly rejoiced. 
They who from our night the gloom 

Swift and lightly scatter — 
Lift to them a hearty — hoch ! 
Old friends, or the latter. 

Broader now rolls on the stream 

With augmented billows ; 
" Live they, hoch !" resound the cheer 

Unto all good fellows. 
They who with combined strength 

Plant themselves together; 
In the sunshine of good luck; 

In the worst of weather ! 



NEW YEAR'S EVE. 327 

As we are collected here, 

Thousands are collected : ' , 

May their sports and joys run high — 

Higher than expected. 
From the spring unto the sea 

Many mills are turning, 
Wider far ! — my heart streams out — 

For the whole world burning ! 



CHAPTER XIX. 



NEW YEAR S EVE CONTINUED SKETCH OF THE HISTORV OF HEIDEL- 
BERG UNIVERSITY. 

The company were raised into the best spirits by the song. 
The splendid cigars, such as seldom wander to the banks of the 
Neckar; the sparkling wine, which welled out of the little 
machine as inexhaustibly as cash out of Fortunatus' purse — all 
contributed to render the conversation, which turned on the 
recent festivity, animated and delicious. The Christmas fes- 
tival, one of the very few people's feasts, which divided Germany 
yet maintained inviolably universal, had given especial pleasure to 
the Englishman, to whom it was a novel circumstance. Above 
all, he could not sufficiently extol a walk which his friends had 
taken him on Christmas-eve. 

He who has ever witnessed in Germany a celebration of 
Christ's gifts to the children, knows well the joyful expectation 
with which the children await in an adjoining room the ecstatic 
moment when the doors of Paradise shall be opened to them. 
How beats their hearts, when at length the bell rings, after 
whose sound they have for weeks long yearned, and in antici- 
pation of which, they have often calculated how frequently the 
Sandman* must do his duty before that moment arrived. And 
now, the instant that it is become dark, the impatience of the 

* It is a popular expression in Germany when children are rubbing their eyes, 
a symptom that they are sleepy and ready for bed — that the Sandman has thrown 
sand in their eyes. 



Nim YEAR'S EVE. 



329 



little ones can be no more restrained, and in all, even the poor- 
est houses, the Bescherung, or distribution of the presents, be- 
gins. The shutters on this evening are closed in scarcely any 
of the houses, so that in the dark, as you pass along the streets, 
you see into the rooms lit up and embellished for the occasion. 
The Christ-tree covered with lights, throws its beams into the 
very darkness of the street ; and the jubilant cries of the rush- 
ing-in children are heard, as transported with the view of their 
individual presents, they fly to each other to show them. This 
scene his friends had brought to his observation, and he could 
not sufliciently thank them for it. 

A modest supper was now brought out ; the friends seated 
themselves round the table, and while they addressed themselves 
to discuss it, they heard the reports of pistols every where re- 
sounding in the streets. The conversation turned itself upon the 
festivity of the present night, and on the different modes in which 
it is celebrated in different countries. 

" That shooting," said Freisleben, " is a pleasure that we will 
surrender to other people ; but the Vivat ! we will help to ac- 
complish. The Chores, Mr. Traveller, which betake themselves 
this night to their kneips, make, about twelve o'clock, a proces- 
sion through the city, and bring to some of the Professors a 
' Lebe hoch !' But till the hour arrive, we will endeavour to 
entertain ourselves with the recollection of a former occasion of 
this kind. It is so natural, at the conclusion of the year, for us 
to bring its circumstances once more before us, and with what 
must ours knit themselves? — Certainly with the University-city. 
I therefore make the proposal, that every one of us, in rotation, 
relate something which has a particular reference to remarkable 
persons and events, occurring or existing in Heidelberg in for- 
mer times, and which were never wanting in Ruperto-Carolo ; 
and in order to make a worthy beginning, our great historio- 
grapher. Von Kronen, may, as he lately was on the point of 
doing, communicate some of the most striking passages from the 
annals of the City of the Muses." 

The proposal met with general acceptance. The glasses 
were agojn replenished ; the cigars sent their curhng fumes into 

28* 



330 THE STUDENT'S 

the air ; and Von Kronen, throwing himself back in the corner 
of the sofa, began — 

Heidelberg is one of our most ancier^t university-cities. Hei- 
delberg, in the unfolding history of German science and German 
spirit, took a distinguished stand, and yet exists it, in the full- 
grown image of this scientific life of Germany, an important 
and essential member. At the mention of this university, start 
up in the memory renowned names, the recollection of great 
crises in the history of literature. It is, to the whole student 
youth of Germany, the spot of promise and of desire. It stands 
foremost amongst those German universities to which even from 
abroad, from beyond the Rhine, the Alps, even the ocean, 
scholars assemble themselves. 

The most numerous and the most living traditions of German 
literature and German spirit amongst the French and English, 
date from Heidelberg, and Heidelberg is therefore pre-eminently 
the representative of our education, the type of the German 
universities, with those nations. 

The founding of the university took place in the year 1386; 
a period in which, though literature flourished in Italy, a deep 
night still brooded over Germany. The then Emperor Charles 
IV. had erected a school of general study at Prague, on the 
model of the Paris university ; and the advantages of this insti- 
tution could not escape the eyes of the Elector, a friend of the 
Emperor's, in his frequent visits to Prague — advantages which 
were derived to the whole country from this establishment. He, 
therefore, resolved to erect a university in his city of residence, 
Heidelberg. On the other hand, the foundation of the university 
had a political object. It was intended to prove an instrument 
for advancing the interests of Pope Urban VL, whose partisan 
Rupert I. of the Pfalz was. In this cause it stood forth in oppo- 
sition to the university of Paris, which had declared for the 
other pope, Clement VII. Notwithstanding this circumstance, 
it was equally formed on the model of that of Paris, and re- 
ceived part of its first teachers thence. As there, the scholastic 
studies acquired an exclusive influence. Theology was in the 
ascendant; the Aristotelian philosophy, and the Canon Law, 



NEW YEAR'S EVE. 331 

followed in immediate connexion; medicine, somewhat later, 
raised itself out of its scanty beginnings. Dialectical contentions 
take up nearly the whole of the early history of the university. 
Yet it is to be remarked, that the returned spirit of living expe- 
rience announced itself, as it had earlier done here, through the 
predominance of Nominalism. Perhaps the study itself of the 
physical writings of Aristotle, slight and confined as it always 
was, might lay the first foundation of the empirical researches 
into nature ; which later, here, as in Paris, came forth so con- 
spicuously. On the contrary, the university closed itself reso- 
lutely against the humanity tendency, which penetrated into 
Germany out of Italy, and which Philip the Upright also was 
anxious to plant in Pleidelberg ; but which Frederick II., and 
his successor Otto Henry, were the first to accomplish, pre- 
paring thereby a way for the Classical languages and litera- 
ture themselves. Through Micyle, Ehem, and Melancthon, the 
university was reorganized ; the predominance of the theological 
faculty restrained ; and thus, together with the philosophical and 
humanity studies, a wider circle of operation opened to the prac- 
tical sciences. The study of law flourished under excellent 
teachers; in the faculty of medicine professorships of therapeu- 
tics, pathology, and physiology, were established. 

The storm which now burst out in the train of the Reforma- 
tion reduced the universities to great straits ; religion became 
matter of politics, and the personal connexions and opinions of 
the princes, determined often in a very powerful manner the 
course of knowledge. The unfortunate embarrassments of 
the Elector Frederick V., led to the storming ot the castle of 
Heidelberg by the Bavarians ; to the expulsion of the pro- 
fessors and students ; to the sending away of the valuable 
library ; and finally, to the total suppression of the university. 
Carl Frederick had it entirely to reinstate anew. He did it 
with a noble zeal, in the spirit and according to the needs of 
the time. The most distinguished teachers, as Cocijus, Spina, 
Frank, Freinsheime, and Textor, were called to it ; a pro- 
fessorship for State and Popular law, the first founded in 
Germany, was established ; and entrusted to the celebrated' 



332 THE STUDENT'S 

originator of this new doctrine, Samuel Puffendorf. A freer 
spirit arose in both speech and writing ; and Carl Ludwig laid 
it under no restraint. 

New agitations of the time, again disturbed this happy 
condition of the university ; the political rule changed with 
the personal affairs of the princes ; and literature felt the in- 
fluence of this, in the strongest and most immediate manner. 
The teaching of philosophy was at a later period made over 
to the Lazarists ; a dark reaction commenced against the 
liberal spirit ; and at the same time that the peculiar spe- 
culative element of Heidelberg university fell into the shade, 
the empirical sciences rose up again into new existence on all 
sides. 

A society had already, in 1734, established itself under the 
auspices of Professor Heuresius, for the cultivation of the his- 
tory of the Fatherland, which however fell again. In 1769, a 
philosophical and economical society was founded in Lantern ; 
and in 1774, a school of state economy. Both of these were 
removed to Heidelberg in 1784, and richly furnished with 
books and collections. From Heidelberg went forth the first 
impulse towards a scientific treatment of the doctrines of State 
economy. 

The House of Zahringen now stepping into possession of the 
Pfalz, thus presided over the university. The second of the 
newly acquired territories, the Breisgau, erected in the uni- 
versity of Freiburg a rival to Heidelberg ; a circumstance 
which was not without its efiect on the latter. By the removal 
of the Catholic seminary to Freiburg, the scope and operation 
of the theological Faculty in Heidelberg were strikingly 
constringed ; but only the stronger, and in this respect in 
opposition to the Freiburg university, and in more conspicuous 
superiority, advanced the other Faculties of Heidelberg, espe- 
cially the judicial and medicinal, and of the philosophical, 
the section of state economy ; which last, through the new 
organization of the university, constituted an especial de- 
partment, and was placed in rank, at the head of the philo- 
sophical. This scientific tendency has raised itself on the 



NEW YEAR'S EVE. 333 

preponderating necessity of the nation and the times ; upon it 
grounded itself the fame and consideration of Heidelberg in 
foreign countries ; and the new governaient was sagacious 
enough not to disturb this natural and historical position of the 
university by ill-timed interference. The demands of modern 
education were so far conceded to, that, by calling into it men 
of the highest celebrity in all departments, a combination of 
the various ruling tendencies of the spirit of the times, a uni- 
versality of studies, was attempted. The two Vosses were 
won in order to give new splendour to the university, and 
demonstrate the taste for classicality ; and a new impetus was 
given to the novel speculative tendencies in philosophy and 
theology. 

But it soon became sufficiently convincing that these elements 
of education did not naturally assimilate themselves to the scien- 
tific life of Heidelberg, but were only artificially engrafted; that 
Heidelberg has not its mission to represent in itself the spirit of 
modern science and art ; but the simple vocation of working out 
education and accomplishment suited to the necessities and in- 
terests of the practical life of the state and of civil offices, in 
both their wider and their more circumscribed spheres. It was 
then suffered to retain the character which it had established for 
itself, and those endeavours to force it into directions which did 
not naturally originate in its own bosom and nature, were dis- 
continued. Thus it came to pass that the philosophy and the 
speculative theology altogether dragged ; that the classical and 
antiquarian studies became one-sided ; that even in the practical 
sciences certain methods became prevalent; that the electrical 
shocks of the stream of the neio literary topics and of scientific 
revolutions in vain thundered and lightened and raged round the 
professors of the old — professors who, from their isolated stools, 
smiled over that rushing and confused scene of excitement; and 
that the men of modern culture, the genial spirits, the specula- 
tive heads, with one voice called down anathemas on that Heidel- 
berg Philisterium. But this anathematized Heidelberg Philiste- 
rium yet possesses an internal strength and freshness, with which 
the hollow inflation of the soi-disant intellectual world found it 



334 NEW YEAR'S EVE. 

difficult to measure itself; these old gentlemen, who seem so far 
removed from the spirit of the age, yet rest themselves in the 
real soil of the time, in the spirit of the period, in the progression 
of political and social life, far deeper than those genialists who 
in high-sounding theories and systems imagine that they have 
seized on the world-spirit. This scientific life which seems to 
stagnate, flows on without intermission noiselessly, steadily, but 
not by fits and starts. 

Hoffmann. — The old gentlemen shall five, and to their health 
we will rub a salamander. Every one prepare a half-glass, and 
then I will command. 

All seize their glasses, which are half-filled. They rub with 
them on the table in circles before them, all the time saying — 
" Salamander, salamander, salam — ." Hoffinan commands. 
One, two, three ! and at the three the glasses are emptied ; One, 
two, three ! they are again set down on the table altogether with 
a clap, where they continue rattling with them, till the command 
again One, two, three ! when they are all lifted aloft, and at the 
final command once more set down altogether on the table with 
a thump. 



CHAPTER XX. 

NEW year's eve continued. UNIVERSITY STORIES. VON PLAUEN= 

Hoffmann. — I will now, for a change, give some passages 
from the Ufe and deeds of a hero, whom, were I a Zacharia, I 
would celebrate in a no less magnificent epic than he has done 
the exploits of his Renommist. The Herr von Plauen, to whom 
I allude, studied for more than ten years here, and enacted more 
mad pranks than the whole united university besides would have 
been able to do. He was a little, broad-set fellow, of prepos- 
sessing exterior and expressive countenance, who stood particu- 
larly well with the ladies. His uncommon strength ; his accom- 
plishment in all bodily exercises ; his overflowing humour con- 
tinually gushing forth in witty conceits, procured him a constant 
good reception in the student world, and in the social circles of 
the city; and he long played in his Chore, as well as in the 
ball-room, a distinguished part, till his total sacrifice of charac- 
ter, and his really reprehensible actions, which were all alike to 
him so long as they carried him to his object, completed his 
ruin. By his strength he frequently put to shame the travelling 
Hercules who exhibit their powers for money ; since, poising 
himself on a perpendicular pole, he would stretch himself out 
horizontally, so as to form a right angle with the pole, and at 
his pleasure, could double up strong silver coins. In the gym- 
nastic ground, which yet existed, no one could stand against 
him ; and in the fencing-school he beat down every one's guard. 
As he once travelled in the Upper-Rhine country without a 



336 THE STUDENT'S 

passport, and a gendarme on horseback, would have detained 
him, he threw both the nnan and his horse into the ditch by the 
roadside, and so left them. He was especially expert in the then 
so-much-liked shooting of geese, and thus made many a Philistine 
the poorer. Understand me right, Mr. Traveller; to shoot, in 
studenten phrase, means to abstract without yet doing any thing 
unjust or contrary to honour; since, especially in the olden 
times, this was a student custom. Small things, as penknives, 
sticks, etc., if they were not dedicated, were shootable. One 
might take them from another, and with the words — " This is 
shot," he took possession of them. It may easily be conceived 
that it was only the elder students who indulged themselves in 
this practice against the Foxes, and no one could secure him- 
self from this Spartan plundering but by instantly declaring a 
thing, whicii another seemed to have a design upon, — unshoot- 
able. 

Von Kronen. — This expression dates itself from the prac- 
tices of the schools of the fifteenth century. As then the teacher, 
with his helpers, was only engaged by the inhabitants of a place 
there for a year or so ; so if the parties disagreed, the master, 
with his assistants, to whom generally a number of boys added 
themselves, proceeded from land to land, and supported them- 
selves with alms, with singing before the houses, and with all 
manner of petty plunderings. The scholars, who stood ex- 
pressly under the protection of the assistants, must deliver to 
them geese, ducks, hens, and the like, which they became very 
expert in carrying off from the villages, and which, in their lan- 
guage, they termed shooting. 

Hoffmann. — I have never before heard of this custom of an- 
tiquity. It is a pity that so beautiful a practice is become obso- 
lete, or I could, as a musician, make most profitable use of it. 

Freisleben : — 

Friends beloved ! there were finer times once 
Than are these times — that must be conceded, — 
And a nobler people lived ere we did. 

Hoffmann. — But to come back to our story. Herr von 



NEW YEAR'S EVE. 337 

Planen possessed a more admirable dexterity in shooting than 
any of the schoolboys just referred to could possibly have; and 
no wonder, — as they were only schoolboys, and he was a stu- 
dent. Plenty of stories are related of him ; how he twisted the 
neck of many a living goose, and popped them under his cloak ; 
how with ladder and hook, he brought many a plucked goose 
down from the lofty store-room ; yes, and how he came most 
easily at one ready stuffed and roasted. 

On Holy St. Nicholas's-day, a worthy citizen of the place, 
whose little son also was called Nicholas, prepared a feast for 
some guests, the chief ornament of which was a goose, as fine 
as ever gabbled and screamed in the Pfalz. The goose was 
carried up ; the guests had not, however, yet made their appear- 
ance, but the little son was impatient, and howling and crying 
desired a slice from the goose. The father strove in vain to 
quiet him ; he howled and cried on. " Then," said the old man, 
" I will give the goose to the Pelznickel." (In our country 
there goes from house to house, on St. Nicholas's-day, fellows 
in disguise, who inquire into the past behaviour of the children, 
and give to the good ones apples, nuts, and httle cakes, but warn 
the bad and threaten them with the rod. These disguised per- 
sonages are styled Pelznickel) With the word the old man set 
the dish with the goose in it on the outside of the window ! 
This frightened the little one ; he promised to be quiet if the 
father would take the goose in again ; whereupon the father 
reached the dish in again, but to his astounding, the goose was 
gone ! It was already rapidly on its way to the city of Dussel- 
dorf, (a Wirthshaus in Heidelberg), where the Herr von Plauen 
and his companions found it smack right delectably with their 
red wine. 

A similar passage once befell our hero in the village Schlang- 
enbach, where he was for a long time the guest of the Amtmann. 
They both, he and the Amtmann, who had himself been a lusty 
student, made a call on the Frau Pfarrerin, the parson's lady. 
They talked of this and that ; of husbandry, and of poultry and 
geese. " Ay," said the parson's lady, " I have a goose hanging 

29 



338 THE STUDENT'S 

above ; you may match it if you can. But with what care and 
labour have I fed it myself; and stuffed it myself with the best 
Indian corn that was to be got. But, gentlemen, you shall judge 
for yourselves. I invite you next Sunday to discuss this famous 
goose." 

" And yet," said Plauen, " I will wager that the Amtmann 
has one that is quite as good." 

" Impossible !" exclaimed the Frau Pfarrerin. 

" Amtmann," rejoined Plauen, " you won't admit that ! I 
challenge you to invite the Frau Pfarrerin and her husband 
to-morrow, Saturday, also to eat a goose, and we will after- 
wards see which goose is the best." 

" Done !" said the Amtmann. 

" We'll see !" said the parson's lady. 

The residence of the plucked goose was soon ascertained by 
the two. It was up in the chamber in the roof, where it hung, 
and made many ornamental swings and gyrations in the wind 
that blew through the dormant windows. It was a ravishing 
sight, which the world only was allowed to enjoy for this one 
day. It was brought away in the night, and the next day at 
noon, most deliciously dressed, was served up before the invited 
guests. 

" Now, how does the goose please you, Herr Pfarrer ?" asked 
Plauen. 

" My husband understands nothing of the matter," interposed 
the Frau Pfarrerin, " but I tell you the goose is good, but mine 
is much better. You shall convince yourselves ; that I promise 
you." 

Alas ! the Frau Pfarrerin was not able to keep her word ; for 
on the morrow she became aware, to her horror, that her 
plucked goose had taken a greater flight than it had ever done 
while it was yet unplucked. She was excessively annoyed ; 
and to propitiate her, the waggish companions sent her a hand- 
some cotton dress. On the package was inscribed — " A dressing 
for the goose." The good woman was completely conciliated, 
and highly delighted ; but her husband thought that the words 
would bear more than one construction. 



NEW YEAR'S EVE. 339 

Freisleben : — 

The Pfarrer's wits were sharp and sound, 

So let us all drink to him round. (They drink.) 

Hoffmann continued. — Another time, in a cold winter, he put, 
one night, the figure of Hercules, which adorns the Brunnen in 
the market-place, a shirt on, much to the bewonderment of the 
market people when they arrived in the place the next mornino-. 
Another time, as it was the fair, the students, at his suggestion, got 
all the strolling organists together in the fair, who each kept on 
playing a different tune, which, with the accompaniment of the 
barking of their assembled dogs, produced the most astounding 
effect. 

I must relate yet another of his tricks, which, however, he 
played off in another university city directly before he came to 
Heidelberg. An innocent youth, who was just come raw from 
the school, recognised in Herr von Plauen a countryman, and 
begged of him, as he would go away the next day, that he 
would accompany him to one of the professors, in order to enter 
himself as an attendant of his lectures, as he really did not know 
how it was proper to conduct himself on such an occasion. 

" With pleasure," answered Von Plauen, gave the Fox at 
once his arm, and conducted him to one of the professors, who 
was completely deaf. As they entered the room, the rogue pre- 
sented the new-comer, with the words, — " Here, thou old Philis- 
tine ! I bring thee a young gentleman who will do thee the 
favour to listen to thy lectures. Take care, however, that thou 
art not too tedious with him, for he is my friend." 

The startled Fox seemed to have dropped at once out of the 
clouds as he heard his friend speak in this manner, and his 
astonishment mounted to its height as he heard him again say, 
as he took his leave — " Farewell, old Camel!" which salutation 
the professor answered with a very gracious bow. 

" But for God's sake, then," asked the Fox, " may one then 
speak in this manner to a professor of the university?' 

" So, and no otherwise," replied he, " must you address them 
all ; they are accustomed to nothing else ; and moreover, they 



340 THE STUDENT'S 

soon lose all respect for him who does not cock his thumb a little 
at them. Besides this, I have been particularly civil to-day, that 
I might not astonish thee too much, as is the case generally with 
youths when they first come from the school. But thou wilt 
quickly acquire the proper tone." 

" O ! if it comes to that," said the Fox, " I'll soon be ready 
for the gentlemen." 

Von Plauen laughed in his fist as he rode forth the next morn- 
ing through the city-gate ; and he soon learnt by letters that his 
protege, in proceeding to enter himself with the next professor, 
whom he addressed in the same style, was speedily sent head 
foi'emost down the steps, as he had unluckily happened to come 
across a professor who not only had an excellent pair of ears, 
but a very fiery temper. 

Some pranks which our hero permitted himself afterwards, 
laid the commencement of his fall. Once he feigned himself 
delirious, raged and cried out, for no purpose, but to have the 
pleasure of spitting in the face of the physician who was called 
in, having, as it is asserted by some, betted a considerable wager 
on this point. 

He spared the fair sex as little in his wild conceits ; which 
were not, however, always very graciously received. He asked 
permission from one lady in the open street to be allowed to 
light his pipe at her eyes. Another time, a carriage, in which 
were some ladies setting out to the ball, being drawn up across 
a narrow street, up which he was coming, he opened the door, 
sprung in, and out at the other door, followed by all his com- 
panions in succession, a,bout twenty in number. Once he went 
with his acquaintance to walk in the |Heidelberg Castle. It 
began to rain heavily, and the mistress of a ladies' school, with 
her pupils, had taken refuge in the so-called Octagonal House, 
on the terrace, which was then not completely closed, and had 
only one entrance. This the wild troop beset, and refused egress 
to the young ladies, except on the condition that each student 
should be favoured with a kiss from one of the ladies. The 
ladies heard the proposal with horror, and long held out siege 
in the little building ; but as night was fast approaching, and not 



NEW YEAR'S EVE. 34 1 

a soul appeared "within view, or hearings on account of the bad 
weather, they were at length compelled by necessity to accept 
the horrid condition, and were then conducted safely home by 
the wilful students. By this exploit, however, Von Plauen, sunk 
dreadfully in credit with the world of beauty, as he was well 
known and immediately recognised. 

Finally, our hero was counselled or ordered to withdraw 
himself, for a stated period, from the university on account of 
his repeated duels, and concluded with himself to pass the half- 
year of his exile in the Hessian Neckarsteinach. As he was 
intending to withdraw without paying his debts, he found that 
his testimonial was taken possession of by his landlady : for Mr. 
Traveller, you are perhaps aware, that if a creditor fears that a 
student meditates quitting the university without satisfying his 
just claims, he lays before the Amtmann of the university the 
amount of his bill, and the exit-testimonial, without which a 
student cannot be admitted to another university, is refused him 
till he has discharged his debts. Plauen immediately procured 
all the Hellers (each in value of the twelfth of a penny English, 
or two hundred and forty to the gulden, or twenty-pence Eng- 
lish) that the place afforded, and sent them, to the whole 
amount of his debt, to the poor landlady in a bag, which, of so 
small a coin, were so many as took her several days to count 
them out. 

On a fine spring day he was, to every one's astonishment, 
seen dressed as for a festival, leading in a rich silk riband, a 
lamb gaily adorned with flowers, along the banks of the 
Neckar. To those who wondered at his proceedings, he said 
that this was the custom of his Fatherland on that particular 
day. So went he on to Ziegelhausen, where he spent the night, 
and where he was the better entertained at the Wirthshaus, 
because he had attracted many people into the house by this 
unusual spectacle. The next morning he made a present of his 
lamb, which, however, was speedily reclaimed by its real 
owner, from whom Plauen had " shot" it; and then betook him- 
self to Neckarsteinach. Here he played the pious Catholic. 
On Corpus Christi day, when the Catholics parade in solemn 

29* 



342 THE STUDENT'S 

procession round the town, singing and praying, and say mass 
at certain altars which are erected in the open air, he followed 
the priest, himself clothed for the occasion, and carried the train 
of his robe. Soon afterwards he showed every where a letter 
sealed with black, which he professed to contain the intelligence 
of his mother's death. Every one took the deepest interest in 
his apparently deepfelt grief, and the more so as he caused 
masses to be said in all the churches whose priests he had 
before so much flattered. His mother, however, lived long 
afterwards, and the whole was only invented on purpose to 
have the masses said. Equally false was a later assertion, 
that he had received information that they had appointed him 
a canon in his Fatherland ; and from that time he went about 
the little place in full costume, and carrying a cross. 

When the period of his banishment was completed, he re- 
turned to the city on a day in the evening of which there was 
to be a ball. An officer who was a countryman of his, then 
resided in Heidelberg, and had frequently visited him in Neck- 
arsteinach. He hastened to his house, and then found that he 
was absent on a journey. As an old acquaintance, he ordered 
his rooms to be opened, managed easily to open his commode, 
and to draw out a new uniform of the officer's. Into this, 
which was indeed much too tight for him, he forced himself, and 
appeared in it that evening at the ball, where he told the people 
one He upon another, of his having succeeded to this new post 
of honour. He looked, however, comical enough in the uni- 
form, which was so narrow that when his partner in the 
dance let fall her rosette, he was not able to stoop to pick it up 
for her. 

Von Plauen soon found again a swarm of acquaintance, and 
again played over his old tricks. One of his acquaintances 
received from his native town, which was somewhere not very 
far distant, a large and most famous cheese, and a hamper of 
good wine. The others soon got wind of it, and wanted to 
persuade him to make a merriment over these things. But he 
assured them that he could not touch a single thing of them, as 
he expected an immediate visit from his family. His father, 



NEW YEAR'S EVE. 343 

•he said, had written him that he yet hoped to eat of the cheese 
with him, and to drink a glass of the wine with him ; and on 
that account he should leave every thing untouched till they 
arrived. 

They pressed him no farther, but one day at noon, as the 
lawless set knew that he was fast at his lecture in the college, 
they rushed into his chamber, drank the wine, and filled the 
bottles with water; and the cheese they scooped so skilfully 
out from beneath, that nothing but the outward rind remained 
standing. They set it again in the dish so that nothing was to 
be seen. It may be imagined what was the poor fellow's 
dismay as he set the cheese before his newly-arrived relations, 
and saw it, at the first cut, fall into mere fragments of peel ; 
and what a face the old man made as he came to taste of that 
flat water instead of his famous Rhine-wine. 

Soon afterwards, the student thus treated, missed a sum of 
money, of some three hundred gulden, which had been remitted 
him in order to defray the expenses contingent on the taking of 
his doctoral examination. Von Plauen, who had spent the 
night with him shortly before the theft was discovered, fell 
under strong suspicion, more especially, as, at the same time, he 
was accused of forging bills of exchange. He was thrown into 
the university prison, and his examination begun. But he did 
not await his sentence. One evening, as he knew that the fat 
beadle to whom the care of the prison was entrusted, remained 
alone in the house, he tore the lock from the door with his 
hands and hastened down into the beadle's room. The beadle 
had the keys belonging to the different rooms in the house, just 
then in his hand, — " How came you here, Herr von Plauen?' 
demanded he. The prisoner seized a knife that lay on the 
table, and warned him that if he did not deliver up to him the 
keys, he would stick the knife into his fat paunch. The terri- 
fied man instantly surrendered the keys ; the prisoner shut 
him in his own room, secured him, and escaped from the 
house. He hastened over the bridge. There he threw himself 
over the gate, which then was closed every evening ; but he 
stepped up to the window of the gatekeeper, knocked, and 



344 THE STUDENT'S 

laid down a kreutzer, saying, " I will cheat no man of his 
money." 

He was pursued, but without avail ; and various reports are 
in circulation concerning his latter fortunes. Some say that 
he became a fencing-master in England, and yet lives there ; 
others, that he continually gave himself more and more to 
drinking, and finally died in the hospital of a great German 
city, where, in the last hour, he called for a choppin of beer, 
and drank it off. 

Freisleben. — So let us, in a better liquor, wish that he had 
left a better memory. His tricks, if they were not always the 
best, have at least served to amuse us ; and so may it go well 
with him in the other world, where, as his deeds certainly could 
not conduct him upwards, let us hope, though somewhat against 
hope, that a deep and final repentance prevented his going 
inevitably downwards. 

They touch glasses. 



STOKY OF THE BLACK PETER. 

Mr. Traveller, the turn now comes to you to relate some- 
thing ; but it really is a difficult task for you to have to relate 
something which is connected with Heidelberg. 

Mr. Traveller. — Luckily I have recently heard the history 
of the life of a student, who formerly studied here, and I think 
it is sufficiently interesting ; — I shall, therefore, relate as much 
of it as I recollect. 

Some twenty or thirty years ago, a young man came to 
Heidelburg, whose name was Schwartzkopf, a native of Fulda 
in Hesse. His father had been an officer in the Hessian service, 
but he died early, and his widow was compelled to straiten her- 
self severely, in order to be able to educate her only son out of 
the proceeds of her small property, and still smaller pension. 
Nature had made amends to the son of the widow for his 
poverty by many fine endowments of person and mind, and 
proudly gazed the affectionate mother on her darling son, as 



NEW YEAR'S EVE. 345 

with little solid cash, but on that account with the more well- 
intended exhortations, and with many tears, she dismissed him 
on his journey to the university. Many were the anxieties that 
filled her mind when she thought that her son indeed possessed 
a good heart, but was still very giddy and of easily persuaded 
mind. He, with joyful spirits, and full of good resolves, pro- 
ceeded to his new place of residence. He studied the greater 
part of the first year with zeal, and he wanted not good friends 
with whom he could spend his hours of the Muses in the most 
agreeable manner. His evil angel then caused him to be in- 
volved in a duel, and on this occasion he made some acquaint- 
ances that were of disastrous influence to him. Through them 
he became acquainted vk^ith play, to which he soon gave himself 
up passionately. It is true that at first he played only in his 
leisure hours, when his old friends were not about him ; but he 
soon came to neglect these, and his leisure hours soon became 
continually less and less able to satisfy his desire for play, and 
then his studies were sacrificed. His friends grew tedious to 
him, because they had other interests; his books were covered 
with thick dust ; and if he sometimes attended the lectures, they 
showed only how far he had fallen behind in the race of know- 
ledge, and he hastened in vexation to the kneip, in order to 
drown in beer and play the upbraidings of his conscience. Thus 
he continued to live on for a long time ; he returned to his room 
only to pass the night, even not that always. In the morning 
he fled from it as early as possible, because all there looked 
desolate. His books were at length sold, and by degrees he had 
disposed of every thing to the Jews, except the wretched clothes 
on his back, in order to feed his unhappy passion. Many a time 
would he fall into a horror, when he awoke out of a dream, 
which had carried him back into his early life, and saw around 
him that empty room, or when he received a letter from his 
affectionate mother, which was full of tender warnings, — from 
his mother, who denied herself even the most necessary things, 
that he might not want that money which he thus consumed on 
his ruinous habits. But these terrible reflections'drove him only 
for a brief space out of his wild life, for he was already too deep 



346 THE STUDENT'S 

sunk in it, and felt no longer the strength necessary to work 
himself out of the gulf. 

It was then that he one day received a letter addressed by a 
strange hand, and sealed with black. His mother was dead, 
and the letter was from his guardian. Far as Schwartzkopf 
was already fallen, yet this letter deeply shook him ; it embit- 
tered the melancholy intelligence beyond words, since his guar- 
dian, a severe man, wrote him, that he had driven not a few 
nails into his mother's coffin ; that he had wasted his property ; 
that he should immediately return home, in order to be made 
acquainted with the real state of his affairs, which left him little 
other alternative than that of becoming a soldier in the ranks. 
His state of mind for the first few days was horrible, and he 
was at the very point of self-destruction ; but this went by, and 
he concluded, after more quiet reflection, that it was the best to 
turn his footsteps homewards, in order, if possible, to move his 
guardian to more moderate measures, or, came it to the worst, 
to enlist into the army. His debts were paid, and he put up the 
slender remains of his possessions in his knapsack, with which, 
early one morning, he passed through the gate leading towards 
Frankfort. 

In the evening of the second day he had arrived in a great 
wood, which extended towards Fulda. The forest seemed to 
stretch itself out endlessly before him. It was already nearly 
dark ; and a violent wind against which he had to labour, bent 
the tall and gloomy pines, which groaned awfully. Full of 
melancholy he wandered forward ; the memory of the past 
came over him with subduing power; and he almost wished 
that one of the mighty trees might be dashed down by the tem- 
pest, and bury him in its fall. He began to sing a song, in 
order to chase away those painful thoughts, — when, as he 
turned an angle of the path, a rough voice cried " Halt !" and at 
once three men sprung out of the bush. The coarse hunting- 
garb, the pistols and hangers with which they were armed, and 
the disguised faces, left him in no doubt that they were some of 
the gang that kept that part of the country in disquiet. 

The student feared them not; fear had never been any part 



NEW YEAR'S EVE. 347 

of his nature, and least of all now, when life to him was made 
indifferent by despair. 

" Leave me alone," said he, " I have nothing for you." 

" But with your permission," said one of the robbers, " we 
will make a rather nearer acquaintance with your knapsack." 

" With all my heart," answered the student quietly, handing 
over to them the knapsack, at the same time that he filled his 
pipe, and asked one of them for a light, as he had himself lost 
his fire-apparatus. He seated himself to rest on a block of 
stone by the side of the road, and requested the robbers not 
to detain him too long, as he had yet far to go to his night's 
quarters. They could not refrain from a laugh at the sang 
froid of the student. 

" You seem to me sad fellows," said Schwartzkopf, " that 
you don't undei'stand your business better; at thirty paces dis- 
tance you might have seen very well, that you would get no- 
thing from me." 

*' Be silent, hound !" cried one of them, " or in a moment we 
will cut thy throat." 

" And a right noble deed too," added the student, " for three 
men to cut the throat of one. If you were not miserable Philis- 
tines, I should be obliged to call upon one of you to give satis- 
faction for that word, hound !" 

"By all the devils, he is right, Heiner," said another; "he 
has a right to it, since he has shown himself so brave, and as 
there is nothing in the knapsack, except a few miserable articles 
of covering." 

" Does the fellow think I'm afraid of him ?" cried Heiner. 

" Ay, to be sure I do," said the student, quietly smoking on. 

The robber was raging, and demanded on the instant to 
fight the audacious student ; but his comrades disapproved of 
it. It was too dangerous an undertaking to decide this affair 
on the highway. They proposed to adjourn to their encamp- 
ment ; and offered in a manner friendly enough to the student, 
if he were not killed in the combat, to give him quarters for 
the night. He was obliged to content himself with the matter, 
and so they put themselves in motion. They went on long, 



348 THE STUDENT'S 

still deeper and deeper into the thick of the wood, and on the 
way made inquiries from the student, whom they watched 
pretty well, as to the circumstances of his life; which he related 
to them truly. 

At length they came to an open place in the forest. Here 
the surrounding hills formed a sort of basin, which on the one 
side was shielded from the wind by a pile of rocks, and on the 
other by a screen of stupendous trees. A little spring gushing 
out from the foot of the rocks, wound itself through the carpet 
of grass, upon which the robber-troop, consisting of about 
twenty men with their wives and children, had built some huts. 
The sentinels on the outposts had first announced their ap- 
proach, and they were speedily surrounded by the troop. When 
they learned the intention of Heiner and the student, they gave 
it their hearty applause ; and as soon as all had refreshed 
themselves with food and drink, a battle-ground was selected ; 
Schwartzkopf received a hanger, and the robbers formed a 
circle round the combatants. The women kindled great pine- 
torches, in order properly to light up the scene. 

The robber fiercely attacked his opponent; and the whole 
scene had a singular aspect. The powerfully built figures of 
the men, whose bold features yet more strongly stood forth in 
the light of the torches, as they, smoking their short pipes, 
looked on the strife, full of expectation of its issue ; and the 
women dispersed amongst them in singular and various attire, 
which they had selected for themselves out of the plundered 
stores. All watched the fight in deep silence ; which was only 
broken by the clattering of the swords, the dashing of the 
water, and the rush of the winds as they raged through the 
woods. The student, by far superior to his antagonist in skill 
of fence, parried with the utmost coolness, quietly meeting with 
his sword every blow of his opponent ; but as the robber began 
to press upon him closer and closer in a furious attack, he 
suddenly struck in before the stroke of his adversary, and in 
the same instant the robber let his sword drop, and the blood 
spouted hotly from the arm-wound through his sleeve. 

The men had seen the contest with astonishment ; the arm 



NEW YEAR'S EVE. 349 

of the wounded robber was bound up, and the rest of them 
gathered together in a group in earnest consultation. The 
student continued standing alone, doubtful whether he should 
make an attempt at escape, or should wait the upshot of the 
consuhation, which might be fatal to him. He concluded to 
wait. 

A robber now stepped up to him, and said," "Our captain 
fell in a skirmish a few days ago. We have all seen, with 
admiration, your perfect coolness, your courage, and your 
swordsmanship ; when you arrive at home little good awaits 
you; remain with us, and be our captain, and so will you find 
a better life than amongst those miserable soldiers." Schwartz- 
kopf hesitated only a short time. He weighed the attraction 
of the proposal against the life which he had otherwise before 
him. He reflected how dangerous it would be to refuse ; and 
if scruples arose in his mind, he silenced them again by the 
thought that he could again give up this life when he pleased. 
After a short rumination, he gave his pledge of adhesion and 
fidelity to the robbers. The intelligence spread itself with 
rapidity through the whole robber troop ; the wives brought 
wine-cups, and all drank to the health and prosperity of the 
new captain. They caroused till deep in the night, and drank 
brotherhood to Schw^artzkopf, who, under the name of Black 
Peter, was speedily known and feared through the whole 
country round. 

About half a year from this event had flown away. The 
complaints of the country people in the neighbourbood of Fulda, 
of the oppressions of the robber band, had ceased. But from 
time to time it undertook greater exploits, with such calculation 
and astonishing boldness, as testified the new spirit that was 
come amongst them since they were led by the Black Peter. 
The real name of Peter Schwartzkopf, from which this was 
derived, was not recognised. The former student, of whom 
people had so often read in the newspapers, was believed to be 
dead, or to have fallen into the hands of the recruiting oflicer, 
and to serve in foreign lands. The captain, however, was 
known as the Black Peter, from two other causes. He always 

30 



350 THE STUDENT'S 

wore a black mask; and he had never been seen otherwise 
than riding on a black horse. The inquietudes of the war had 
hitherto made impossible any earnest attempt to put down 
those disturbers of the public security ; and this was rendered 
the more difficult as the band never lingered long in one and 
the same place, but, immediately after the perpetration of some 
bold deed, vanished from their haunt, and exchanged it for the 
Bergstrasse, or the country of the Main. 

Already the storm of war had retired many weeks from the 
neighbourhood of Fulda, and the robber band appeared also to 
have left the country, perhaps out of fear of a more vehement 
pursuit. The inhabitants of the little city of Schliichten rejoiced 
themselves in the prospect of the enjoyment of a more refreshing 
rest than they had for a long time been favoured with. 

One afternoon a heavily loaded travelling-carriage rolled 
slowly into the city, and aroused universal attention as it drew 
up before the Gasthaus Zum-Stern. A swarm of lounging Bauers 
collected about it, and out of every window peered curious 
countenances. But how much greater was the astonishment 
as the people learned from the coachman and valet, who, both 
of them clad in military costume, looked, in their mustaches, 
most formidable fellows, that their master, a Graf of high stand- 
ing, had been attacked on the way by robbers, and now lay 
severely wounded in the carriage ; and that they only owed 
their escape and life to the fortunate interposition of a patrol 
party belonging to the Grafs own regiment. 

At this intelligence the whole city was thrown into an uproar, 
and not the least the landlord of the Star, who with his loud 
and eager orders for the proper care of the noble gentleman, 
made the heads of all his people dizzy. The stranger Graf was 
finally lifted out of the carriage by his servants, aided by some 
of the others. He was a tall, stately man, pale with the loss of 
blood ; his eyes were closed, and many deep wounds in the 
head were only rudely and hastily bound up. While he was 
carried to his bed and given into the care of the surgeon, who 
was called in, the Amtmann was hastily sent for; and, from the 
statements of the coachman, who caused at the same time his 
own arm-wounds to be bound up, dictated to his clerk a long 



NEW YEAR'S EVE. 35I 

protocol. The whole police corps, with an addition of some 
arn:ied Bauers, immediately set out in pursuit of the robbers, 
without, however, being able to discover the least trace of them. 

In the meantime the stranger lay in the most frightful delirium. 
The servants forbade any one, besides the surgeon, from enter- 
ing the room; such, they said, being the orders of their lord. 
The surgeon wondered sometimes at the fearful phantoms that 
haunted the imagination of the strange nobleman, which the 
servants calmly remarked proceeded entirely from the last 
battle, and from the attack of the robbers. 

For some days the Graf hovered between life and death, but 
shortly a decided improvement manifested itself in him ; and 
after many weeks he was so far recovered, as to be able to 
receive the visits of the first people of the place, who anxiously 
desired to make the acquaintance of so distinguished a person- 
age ; and indeed, shortly afterwards, to return them. He styled 
himself Graf Pappenheim ; gave out that he was a native of 
the north of Germany, and had quitted his regiment on account 
of a difference with his superior officer, and was about to retire 
to his estate. He possessed a great partiality for Hesse, as his 
mother was a native of that state, whence he himself had a 
Hessian accent in his speech, which was strong enough to 
strike the ear of the people. In short, the Graf was a most 
genteel man in society, had the most agreeable manners, and 
was soon a favourite in all the circles of the little city. When 
the Bauers had at first seen the many heavy chests of the 
stranger, they said, " he is a rich man, the Graf;" and said they 
again, with one accord, as they saw him first ride out on a 
black horse, purchased of the Chief Forest-master, " he is a 
very handsome man, the Graf." 

The Graf brought a new life into the little city; he was the 
soul of all companies, and himself gave the finest entertainments 
in the Star; in short, he had always something new with which 
to entertain society. He treated every one with the most con- 
descending courtesy, but above all the lovely daughter of the 
Chief Forest-master, who was not a little envied on that account 
by the other ladies. As it now one day became known that the 
Graf had proposed for the Forester's lovely daughter, and con- 



352 THE STUDENT'S 

templated buying an estate for himself in the neighbourhood for 
his future abode, many of the young ladies made truly a sour 
face ; but all said, " We have long thought that," and hastened 
to present to the young lady their congratulations. 

The marriage was immediately afterwards celebrated at the 
new castle of the Graf, with the greatest eclat. About five 
miles from the city lay, in the midst of a wood — a former hunt- 
ing castle of the prince — a wide-stretching building. This the 
Graf had recently purchased. The Chief Forest-master thought 
indeed the castle much too solitary, and of too great an extent ; 
but his son-in-law quieted him on that head, with the prospect 
of the noble hunting which they could here enjoy together. 
That the carriage was always at the command of his wife, 
and he hoped constantly to have company from the city with 
him. The extensive accommodation was, moreover, very con- 
venient to him, as, on account of the not yet perfectly restored 
security of the country, he should send home for the greater part 
of his servants to attend him here. And it was not long, in fact, 
before the rooms of the castle were filled with about a score of 
fresh servants. They were altogether strong, wild-looking fel- 
lows ; and the Graf said that he had selected these expressly, 
because people yet, here and there, talked of the robber band ; 
and it was possible that they might some day attempt an attack 
on his house or property. It was the more necessary for him 
to do this, as he was himself a restless spirit, and could not live 
without now and then making a little expedition. But this he 
could not do unless he felt at the same time that he left his 
house in perfect security. 

The people in the city considered this all very reasonable, 
and conceived a still greater opinion of the affluence of the Graf, 
who was able to maintain so gi-eat an establishment. The 
Forest-master's daughter lived with her husband in the happiest 
manner ; and when he sometimes, accompanied by some of his 
servants, m.ade a little excursion into the country round, she in- 
vited always some of her friends from the city, and never sent 
them back without the most beautiful gifts. The Grafin, indeed, 
wondered with herself, that her husband, who otherwise grati- 
fied all her desires the moment they were uttered, never took 



NEW YEAR'S EVE. 353 

her with him on these little excursions ; but she loved him too well 
to chagrin him by pressing entreaties. The winter was now 
come, and yet the excursions of the Graf did not cease. They 
were it is true, more seldom, but they often stretched themselves 
into weeks ; and the young wife frequently felt herself exces- 
sively solitary when she, with her maid, the only other female 
who was in the castle, sate in the large room, and the wind with- 
out shook the naked branches of the trees fearfully. 

During this period the vicinity was not at all disturbed by 
the robber band, notwithstanding the repeated accounts of house- 
breaking and highway robberies in the countries of the Main 
and the Neckar. The Graf seemed almost totally at ease on 
that subject, for he often took with him all the servants, with 
the exception of two or three, in his journeys. The young wife 
made many reflections on this strange conduct of her husband, 
who always so suddenly resolved on these marches ; yes, some- 
times even was awoke by a servant in the night, and at once 
went forth numerously accompanied. It also struck her that 
many of the presents which he brought her were clearly not 
new ; and if she asked him the cause of it, he told her that they 
had been sent for by him from his native seat, and that he had 
been in a neighbouring city to fetch them. 

In that part of the castle in which the servants resided, was: 
a room which was always closed to the women, as there, the 
Graf said, were preserved family documents of the highest im- 
portance, to which none but himself must have access. Strange 
did it seem when Lisette, the chambermaid, asserted to her 
lady, that she had often seen one of the servants in that room 
with her lord ; and the Grafin was equally annoyed at the fami- 
liarity between master and servants, when the Graf, till latein 
the night, in one of the rooms appertaining to the servants, was 
accustomed to talk and drink with them. " They are true 
souls," said he, " who have been brought up with me, and I 
must be good to them, as I have caused them to come into a. 
country so strange to them." 

All this, and the relations of Lisette, who, amongst other- 
things, asserted that she had seen the Graf, on his entering the 

30* 



354 THE STUDENT'S 

house, take off a black mask, disturbed the poor lady in the 
highest degree, and she resolved at last to throw light on the 
mystery, let it cost what it would, but till then to conceal her 
anxiety from her relations. 

One evening, as she heard the Graf and his followers come 
riding in, she hastened quickly into the neighbourhood of the 
suspected room, into which her husband was accustomed 
always to go first, and concealed herself in an unused fireplace. 
With beating heart she saw the Graf enter with two servants. 
With fight steps she approached the mysterious door and 
fistened. What she then heard was sufficient to inform her of 
her dreadful fate. The Graf, and the notorious robber-captain, 
the Black Peter, were one and the same person. Near to 
fainting, the unhappy wife glided away to her own room. 
Soon after the Graf appeared, and expressed his regret that, on 
account of family intelligence which he had received, he must 
yet ride out again this night, but would be back by break 
of day. 

Scarcely had the Graf and his troop ridden away, when the 
poor wife called her maid, communicated to her the dreadful 
truth, and both determined on instant flight. They left the 
lights burning in the chamber, and stole silently down into a 
room below. Happily the one robber whom they had left 
behind, was yet within the mysterious chamber. They escaped 
through the window, and made directly for the nearest way to 
the Forest-master's house. Like two alarmed roes they has- 
tened on through the night, and often shrunk together when the 
moon lighted up a distant tree, so that they fancied one of the 
robbers stood behind it. Continually looking round to see that 
no one was pursuing them, they at length came distantly into 
view of the Forest-master's house. Their anguish became 
almost insupportable when so near the goal ; they thought to 
themselves they might yet be overtaken. At last they reached 
the house, full of joy that they yet saw a light in the room of 
the Chief Forest-master. He rose up in amaze, when he heard 
a knocking at so late an hour ; but how much greater was his 
astonishment as his daughter flew to him, and sunk breathless 
in his arms. 



NEW YEAR'S EVE. 355 

As soon as the old man was able from his exhausted daughter 
to learn the cause of her thus wandering in the night, his wrath 
burnt fiercely at the false son-in-law. He called up his hunts- 
men : the Bauers in the little city were armed, and with all 
possible speed they set out for the wood castle. But the robber 
had vanished with the mysteries of the closed chamber. It was 
empty. All the other rooms were still just in the state that the 
fugitives had left them, but gold there was none to find. 

The next day, the castle was surrounded by soldiers that 
were sent out from Fulda, but the robbers had evacuated the 
country, and came not again. After many vain attempts, it 
occurred at last that one of the robbers was seized on the 
Bergstrasse. This led to further discoveries ; and finally, they 
had the good fortune to take prisoner the captain himself. He 
was confined over the Manheimer Gate in Heidelberg, and was 
to be delivered over to the Hessian authorities, when he escaped in 
a most extraordinary manner out of his prison, but was speedily 
recaptured. After an examination, in which he was hard 
pressed without their being able to bring any confession from 
him, he was dismissed at eight o'clock in the evening. At half 
past nine o'clock the same evening, the gaoler announced to 
the magistrate who had presided on the inquiry that the Black 
Peter had escaped from his confinement. The watch had shot 
at him, but had missed him. 

It was found that, without any negligence on the part of his 
keepers, he had got out in a scarcely imaginable manner, in 
his shirt only. He had taken the whole of the circular window 
of his prison with its frame out. By means of a sharp holdfast, 
with which the frame of the window had been secured, he had 
broken the two new and good locks of the chain with which he 
was chained crossways; taken oflf the chains; torn up his 
bedclothes, and twisted them into a rope-ladder, from ten to 
twelve feet long, and had slipped through the wonderfully 
narrow opening of the strong window-shutters, which, by proof 
made there and then, would admit the passage of no other head. 
When he had reached the bottom of his rope he had still nine 
or ten feet to drop to the earth; and the shot, which was 
instantly fired at him, passed close to him. 



356 THE STUDENT'S 

Immediately on his escape he sprung into the neighbouring 
Neckar, and concealed himself under the floor of a swimming- 
school, which was erected on a boat, where he continued many 
hours up to the mouth in water. He saw the pursuers on both 
banks of the Neckar, and in the swimming-school itself. It 
was not till after midnight that he attempted to wade through 
the Neckar, which, luckily for him, was then very low ; but he 
had not reached the other bank of the river when he became 
aware of the watchers placed there also. He continued yet 
for a long time sitting on a rock in the middle of the flood. 
Finally, he made another attempt, reached the bank, sprang up 
it, and by a rapid and breathless flight succeeded in reaching, 
in spite of all the straining efforts of his pursuers, the hills and 
the woods. 

In order to make his appearance in the wood the less striking 
to people that he might happen to meet, he slipped his legs 
through the sleeves of the shirt, and held the lower part of the 
shirt about his neck with his hands. He thus ran on to a great 
distance. He met two Bauers in the woods, to whom he 
feigned himself crazed and dumb, and begged of them by signs, 
and was so lucky as not only not to be seized, but to obtain an 
alms from them, with the pity of the givers. With this alms 
he purchased some bread at a solitary mill in the mountain. 
The people inquired the cause of his singular dress, or rather 
want of it ; and he invented a lie which answered his purpose. 
He fled still farther ; till, at evening, he was arrested by some 
Bauers of less easy faith, and who had already became apprised 
of his flight, and the reward offered for his recapture. He 
was brought back to his prison, and soon afterwards delivered 
over to the Hessians, and confined in a high tower. But even 
from this he effected his escape in the most ingenious manner 
possible. 

One morning, the sentinel who was on duty at the foot of the 
tower looking up, observed a hole worked in the wall, from 
which a tolerably long rope hung. He immediately and with 
all speed gave intelligence of the circumstance to the police 
officers. All hastened up into the tower, and saw with amaze- 



NEW YEAR'S EVE. 357 

ment a hole made through the wall, of the width of a man's 
body of ordinary size. Into the wall, a piece of iron, part of 
the broken chain, was driven, and to this the rope was fastened ; 
the rope itself was made from the torn up cover and tick of the 
prisoner's straw bed. 

They could not sufficiently wonder how a man could pass 
through such a hole ; how he could trust himself at such a 
terrific height to such a brittle rope; and how he could by any 
possibility,' when he reached the end of this rope, the length of 
which was insignificant in comparison with the height of the 
tower, drop to the ground without certain destruction. 

While they were thus lost in these wonders, the prisoner, who 
all the time was in the room concealed under the straw taken 
out of his bed and heaped up behind the door, crept silently 
out, passed the open standing door unobserved, descended the 
stairs, and completely efl^ected his escape. 

He lived afterwards in various places and by various means ; 
and on the breaking out of the war, enlisted for a soldier. The 
Battle of Waterloo, which cost so many honourable men their 
lives, ended also his. 

" And his former wife ?" asked HoffiTiann. 

" She soon died of grief, or, as they say in England, of a 
broken heart." 

THE STUDENT STARK. 

After a short pause, Freisleben addressed himself to the 
telling of his story: and for that purpose drew forth a letter. 
After he had seen that the company were supplied with glee- 
wine, he said — 

We have had enough of evil and evil deeds, and it may, 
therefore, be permitted me to relate something out of the life of 
a good man ; namel}^ out of the life of my friend Stark, whom 
you have become acquainted with in his passing through here 
lately, face to face. 

His father was the pastor of the village of Greenwiesel, and 
had, as is only too much the case with the country clergy, a 



358 THE STUDENT'S 

very scanty income. The boy received his first instruction in 
the Folks'-school of the place, and afterwards from his father, 
who, being an industrious man, contrived to spare so much 
time from the duties of his office, as was necessary to the due 
progress of his son. Private teachers he could not afford, nor _ 
the expense of his maintenance in a neighbouring town, so that 
he might attend the Gymnasium there. This was only an ad- 
vantage to Stark, as he could not easily have enjoyed an 
education which was at once so well grounded, and so free 
from all pedantry, as that which his father gave him. An old 
officer who had long spent his pension in the village, and was a 
friend of the pastor's, spared no pains to instruct him in the 
mathematics, which he loved above all things. But the scholar 
listened with still more delight to his instructor when he talked 
to him of the armies in which he had served, and of the battles 
in which he had been engaged against the French. The inter- 
course with the old officer, and the books which he put into his 
hands, contributed not a little to inflame the boy's enthusiasm 
for liberty and Fatherland. With avidity he devoured the 
German history of Kohlrousch, and was accustomed then to 
rush forth into the wood, in order that he might stretch himself 
under the German oak, and felt altogether as German should. 
Nowhere was he so delighted to be, as abroad amid God's free 
nature ; and as the other boys of the village could not under- 
stand his internal feelings and impulses, he was thus daily 
accustomed to roam about alone, which occasioned him many 
a reproof from his father. If it was fine weather, he used to 
take out his Tacitus with him, his favourite author, or he 
recited with a loud voice a passage from Ossian, of which the 
old officer had given him a German translation. Nothing, 
however, gave him greater pleasure than to battle with the 
winds; and the more it thundered and lightened, the more 
drenchingly poured down the rain, the more exulting was 
his feeling of the strength of his youth. When wet through, 
and looking wild, he returned home, his mother would clasp 
her hands in wonder at his foolishness, as she termed it. Yet 



NEW YEAR'S EVE. 359 

she loved him extremely, as he on his part, above all things, 
loved his parents and his sister, and did every thing to please 
them that he could discern would be acceptable to them. 

The first bitter tears that he shed, and bitter ones indeed they 
were, was when his old friend and instructor, the old officer, 
died. But a still greater misfortune soon befell him and his 
family. At the time that young Stark should have entered one 
of the higher classes of the Gymnasium of a neighbouring 
town, the old pastor was seized with an apoplectic stroke, as he 
returned from preaching. His speedy death spared him the 
painful reflection, that he left a widow and two uneducated 
children helpless in the world. The family removed to the 
next town, and there hired a poor dwelling in a small side 
street. The young Stark, who attended the Gymnasium, felt, 
indeed, that he must consider himself as the head of the family^ 
and must provide for it. He discharged his duty in the most 
exemplary manner. Besides that, he received his school instruc- 
tion free, he also enjoyed a stipend which w^as awarded him in 
consequence of his having passed a brilliant examination. It 
was very small indeed, but Stark knew how to circumscribe 
his wants. He laboured zealously, in order to advance as 
rapidly as possible, while at the same time he devoted every 
leisure hour to instruct a considerable number of boys in the 
city, in their elementary leaiming. With the united proceeds of 
this stipend and these labours he maintained his faniily; and 
thus, Vv^hen he had toiled through the day as learner and 
teacher, the evening found him by his study-lamp, where he 
sate fixed till late in the night. But he was cheerful and con- 
tented. His strongly-grounded constitution enabled him to sup- 
port these exertions, and the glad consciousness of being able to 
stand independent, and to provide for the necessities of his 
mother, and of one dearly beloved sister, made sweet to him 
that monotonous life. 

Another removal of the little family was necessary when the 
young m,an went to the High School. For the rest, his family 
continued to live after that removal as they had done before, and 
Stark pursued his studies with double diligence, in order yet 



360 THE STUDENT'S 

better to maintain them. His teachers in the university took an 
interest in the brave youth, and amongst the students he found 
congenial friends, who, more favoured by fortune, took a plea- 
sure in procuring him many enjoyments of life, without touching 
too closely on the delicacy of his feelings. They visited him 
gladly in his modest room, where, besides the most necessary 
articles of furniture, there was nothing to be found but books, 
and some maps which he made use of in his studies, and which 
hung on the whitewashed walls. Yet was no one happier than 
he when he shared the frugal meal in the evening with his 
family, or with a friend chatted over a glass of beer and a pipe. 
He went very simply, but yet very neatly dressed. His tall, 
strong figure; that earnest, somewhat pale countenance, to 
which the slightly aquiline nose, the friendly, thoughtful eye, 
and a background of black whiskers, gave interest and effect, 
produced on the beholder a highly favourable impression. Every 
one with pleasure heard him speak, for his voice was strong and 
well-toned, his speech fluent, and when he became zealous, car- 
ried you irresistibly along with it. But when he sung, he affected 
every one. His bass voice was, however, too powerful for a 
small room. It made every window vibrate, and was, indeed, 
a voice made to sing the songs of German freedom under the 
German oak. 

Cruelly did fate startle him out of this monotonous yet quiet 
and happy life. A nervous fever which then raged, snatched 
away his mother; and his only sister, who had been her true 
nurse on her sick bed, soon followed her. Stark was strongly 
bowed down by these severe losses. So much the more did he 
attach himself'to a maiden, whom he had now known for some 
years, and to whom he had now been for half a year affianced. 

The father of Emily, his promised bride, lived near the city. 
Emily had a very attractive person, was always merry and 
good-humoured, and possessed many good qualities ; but was in 
the highest degree giddy and fickle. My friend would never 
admit the last characteristic. He was blind enough only to see 
in the maiden, noble and beautiful qualities, which he worshipped. 
But he came to be bitterly convinced to the contrary. A vi'ealthy 



NEW YEAR'S EVE. 361 

merchant's son, who just then was commencing business for him- 
self, announced himself as a lover of Emily to her father. The 
father, although pleased with the proposal, yet gave his daughter 
free choice, and she was heartless enough to prefer the charac- 
terless, pretty, and glib-tongued merchant, to the poor Stark, 
who, since his recent trials, truly had become more grave, and 
might possibly have wearied her with many melancholy retro- 
spections of his lost mother and sister. Emily shrunk from 
writing herself to my friend, but informed him, apparently in an 
unfeeling manner, through a third person, that the connexion 
must be broken off; and assigned as reasons, besides some other 
unimportant things, that her father was favourable to the pre- 
tensions of the other lover, and had forbid her to hope for his 
consent to a union with Stark. 

Her father, who through the whole affair conducted himself 
as an honourable man, answered a letter which my friend 
addressed to him. This answer kept strictly to the truth ; but 
at the same time expressed a wish that it might be the last; 
moreover, requesting the return of the letters of Emily. 1 will 
here communicate to you the letter which my friend wrote to 
the false one. He permitted me, as I was long the confidant of 
his attachment, and frequently the bearer of his letters, to take 
a copy of this, and also to show it to any good and tried friend. 
You may in it see the real nature of his character. 

" Emily ! — Thy father has requested me to renounce our ver- 
lobment ; to break off the correspondence. I had already written 
to give him this assurance, but he had not the goodness to 
receive the letter. Consequently I have not given it him, and 
his will is for me no unconditional law. 

" But thou appearest to be of the same mind, and thy wishes 
shall be sacred to me till my last breath. Fear not that I will 
embarrass thee with further importunities : only I cannot deny 
myself the melancholy pleasure, once more, in this last letter, 
to speak to thee from my heart. I will justify myself to thee, 
justify thou also thyself to thyself My heart shall and must be 
silent : I have cause to fear that its language will no longer be 
understood; and I will not desecrate its sensibilities. It has 

31 



362 THE STUDENT'S 

for some time been my employment to read over again all thy 
letters with a bitter feeling. It is as if the lovely deception yet 
still played round my heart ; as if it could not awake out of the 
sweet dream. I know many kinds of doubts, but none gives 
such a scorpion sting as the doubt with which thou hast inspired 
me. I have been happy, — happy in my vain belief! and I thank 
thee for it. Thou mayst be proud; — no other woman has 
made me so happy as thou. Thou mayst be very proud ; — 
none can henceforward make me happy. Thou bringest me 
back to my old philosophy respecting the fair sex, and indeed at 
the right time. 

" Emily, thou hast not dealt nobly, not honestly, with me, not 
wisely with thyself. Why hast thou not told me the truth 1 
Thinkest thou that I shun the truth, even when it strikes me to 
the earth ? I observed thy change immediately with the holiday. 
I ran to and fro, full of anguish, like one possessed. No greet- 
ing came from thee — no affectionate inquiry — no question after 
a letter, which I had, in fact, written seven times and tore again 
to pieces. My spirit was on the rack. Then informed me^ 
Neuburg, that the connexion must cease ; that thou wished it 
— thou! who only a fortnight before, sent me the most sacred 
protestations ! Thy father had taken away all hope from thee ; 
had menaced thee with his curse ! 

" Of all this nothing was true, as I learned from thy father's 
letter. What course, thinkest thou, then was left me to pursue 
in accordance with my character, but to write to thy father 
directly, as from thy messenger I must understand that he knew 
all. Hadst thou but said the truth to me, I should, after a short 
struggle, have returned every thing to thee. 

" Thou complainest of my pride, and takest great pains to 
humble me. Perhaps thou mayst succeed ; perhaps not. Thy 
father will receive no further letter from me ; thy mother, none; 
thou thyself perhaps, none. That cannot humiliate me. I find 
my conduct tolerably consistent, — as consistent as a man in my 
state of mind can be. 

" What shall I now do ? It was thy desire, — thine, and thine 
only to break off. Thou wouldst have spared me, and thyself, 
and thy parents, many painful feelings, if thou hadst acted with 



NEW YEAR'S EVE. 353 

somewhat more consideration. It seems as if thou hadst made 
it thy pleasure to wind up my sensibiUties to such a height, in 
order then to make me feel my nothingness. Thou hast suc- 
ceeded. The maiden who, but shortly before, hung on my neck, 
and prayed assurances of my truth, has now not once the cou- 
rage to say that she loves me. I am too serious for gallantry ; 
and thou hast wofully erred, if thou hast classed me amongst 
such men. It seems we have neither of us known each other, 
and need therefore make no complaints of each other. That I 
have disturbed thy peace, forgive me. That thou hast created 
in me so many beautiful hopes, only again to destroy them; 
that through thee my joys are dashed to the ground, that will I 
forgive thee ; lament my simplicity, and again class thee amongst 
the ordinary crowd of maidens. 

" Could I but do that, Emily, I should yet be happy enough. 
My seriousness has not pleased thee; and, in order to cure it, 
thou hast poured bitterness into it. I complain not of thy 
parents ; they act according to their notions of duty ; but how 
thou actest according to thy conception of duty, I cannot per- 
ceive. Thou hast neither acted towards thy father nor towards 
me as thou shouldst. The reasons which thy father gives are 
valid enough, as thou givest weight to them ; but one thing 
more than all has struck me — it is called the fickleness of 
women. 

" Thy father does thee justice. Emily, thou shouldst have 
been honest with me. I am not the man that will abuse the 
tender heart of a maiden. I challenge thee to speak the truth. 
Have I not been open-hearted with thee? Have I stolen thy 
affections 1 My whole soul hangs yet on thee, and never will 
it be able to loose itself from thee. If thou wert unworthy of 
me, would I weep and lament over thee 1 Tell me then can- 
didly thy desires, and trust me that I have generosity enough to 
satisfy them all, even if it cost me my life. Thou canst charge 
nothing upon my honour. Thou would long ago have had thy 
letters, if thy father had not demanded them. He shall not re- 
ceive them, but he shall read them if he desires it, for his own 
satisfaction and thy justification. Hast thou written any thing 



3G4 THE STUDENT'S 

that thou art ashamed to acknowledge ? Hast thou cause for 
shame 1 Then are we both to be pitied ; thy father and I, 
and thou most of all. Then shall they, to extinguish all mistrust, 
be destroyed in thy presence. If I am reluctant to come into 
thy father's presence, yet I will not be ashamed before him, I 
am wont to compel respect, if indeed I can acquire no attach- 
ment. I can well imagine how many disadvantageous things 
people will tell thee at my expense. If thou canst believe them 
without examination, then, indeed, have I expended on thee 
every sentiment of my heart in vain. I pity thee in all my 
misery far more than myself, since I shall probably so long as 
I live continue a living reproof to thee. My conduct will be thy 
punishment. I assure thee, love, that I shall never lose thee out 
of my soul. I have with no other maiden stood in a nearer 
relationship. Thou art the only one that has firmly fixed her- 
self in my heart. Go whither thou wilt, I shall bear thee with 
me to the grave. Thirty years hence thou wilt most probably 
hear from me exactly the same tone, if thou art by any circum- 
stance reminded of me. 

" Emily, thou shouldst have dealt more honestly with me. 
By God ! I would have sacrificed every thing for thee. Wilt 
thou be happy when at thy wedding I sing a song of sorrow, 
that my friends may weep with me ? 

" Emily, I pray thee, for God's sake, by the happiness that 
thou yet hopest, be worthy of thyself: I cannot believe any 
thing bad of thy heart. Be the friend of thy father, if thou 
canst no longer be my beloved. If my kiss has not ennobled 
thee, then am I an outcast, or thou a creature without mind. 
Do nothing — nothing secret. What I did was done on thy 
account; otherwise I walk ever in the light. For my sake, 
also, show this letter to thy parents ; I will not, when occasion 
requires it, conceal from them that I have written this letter. 

" Allow me once more to deceive myself with the sweet delu- 
sion of the harmony of our souls. Thou hast destroyed a beau- 
tiful work, love, which thou shouldst not have done, or shouldst 
not have helped to build it up. Thou askest what I think, and 
not what I feel ? I am infinitely sorrowful ; and of what kind 



NEW YEAR'S EVE. 



365 



my affections are thou mayst read hereafter in my countenance. 
I may, perhaps, never again be so happy as to speak another 
syllable with thee, but my heart will accompany thee, since I 
am unchangeable ! 

" a — .» 



It is an old, old story, 

Yet bides for ever new ; 
And he to whom it chances, 

It breaks his heart in two. 

Heyne. 

It came not truly so far with my friend ; but happiness of his 
life was for a long period destroyed : the manly and high-toned 
character of his mind, however, saved him from sinking perma- 
nently under the weight which would have prostrated many a 
one of equally sensitive and strongly-devoted temperament. 
But, as an English poet has said, he resolved not to sacrifice 

His name of manhood to a myrtle shade. 

The fervour of his passion for political liberty, his admiration 
of heroic actions, and his pride in his native country, were very 
near, in the excited state of his mind, leading him to involve 
himself in the grand but ill-digested plans of the Burschenschaft 
for the consolidation of Germany into one magnificent empire ; 
and probably the blowing up of those plans by the government 
measures which followed on the wild deeds of Sand and others, 
just at that crisis, saved him from the fate which most probably 
would have awaited one so ardent and qualified to take a promi- 
nent part — flight, or exile, from his native country. Therefore, 
turning his eyes away from this hopeless track, he studied with 
renewed severity, passed a splendid examination, and soon after 
wrote a work on the German political constitution, which at 
once attracted attention, and excited the admiration of all the 
lawyers in Germany. It was soon translated into most of the 
languages of Europe, and brought him a call from the principal 
university of one of the first states of Germany, where he now 

31* 



366 THE STUDENT'S 

occupies the chair of jurisprudence with the most splendid repu- 
tation. He is no less distinguished by the clearness and grasp 
of his reasoning powers, than by the eloquence of his style, by 
which he contrives to diffuse a charm and a life into the driest 
topics ; and he is equally so for the liberality of his principles, 
and the ardent devotion of his mind to the liberties of mankind. 
He is beloved by the students who attend his lectures, for the 
affability of his manners, and by his cordial readiness on all 
oc<5asions to give them his advice in any of their troubles or 
perplexities. Having himself fought his way through a narrow 
and a rugged path, he knows how to sympathize with others in 
the same circumstances. His triumphs over his own impedi- 
ments have not inspired him with arrogance ; nor the sorrows 
and disappointments of his dearest hopes seared his sensibilities, 
but on the contrary, softened and mellowed his heart. In public, 
he wears in his pale and grave countenance traces, not only of 
his native tone of mind, but of the shattering baptism of spirit 
that he has passed through ; but in the social circle, though 
often on his first entrance silent and reserved, the warmth of his 
imagination and heart are sure to triumph over the sadness of 
habitual reflection ; and he charms every one with the poetry 
and the animated references to the great deeds and great men 
of his Fatherland, that show you that he is still at heart the same 
as when he listened in breathless attention to the stories of the 
old officer, or sung out Ossian on the forest hills. 

Of Emily, we have little to say. Hidden, herself, in the re- 
tirement of private life, she would have seen with an inextin- 
guishable regret the splendid career and wide fame of the man 
whom she had abandoned, had she possessed a mind worthy of 
becoming the companion of such a man and of such a destiny ; 
but the great error of Stark's hfe was that of investing a lovely 
but not high-minded woman, with the poetry and the magna- 
nimity of his own spirit. But he himself is a striking example 
of the virtues, the talents, and the indefatigable labours by which 
many a German Professor fights his way out of narrow cir- 
cumstances, and through the shades of native obscurity, into 
the broad light of fame and public usefulness. Such instances 



NEW YEAR'S EVE. 367 

are not rare, and they but, hear I right? it even now strikes , 

twelve ! 

In confirmation of this was heard on all sides the reports of 
fire-arms. 

•' Prost Neu-Jahr ! gentlemen," cried Freisleben. " Prost 
Neu-Jahr !" resounded they in reply. Freisleben declared that 
his story was at an end ; they drank off their glasses anstossing 
for the first time in the new year, and hurried into the street. 



CONCLUSION OF NEW YEAR S EVE THE TORCH TRAIN — THE EXPLOIT 

OF THE RED FISHERMAN. 

Following the distant sound of the fire-arms, they soon came 
to the troop of students, which was marching round to bring to 
the Prorector, and to some of the most popular professors, a 
" Vivat !" Music went before, accompanied with torches ; and 
a noisy swarm of students followed it, — some in cloaks and 
great coats ; some in dressing-gowns, and with their long pipes 
in their mouths. You could easily see that they had all of them 
suddenly started away out of their kneips, where they had cele- 
brated the termination of the old year. They now arrived at 
the dwelling of a professor. The musicians placed themselves 
in the centre of the street, surrounded by the torches ; the stu- 
dents closed in around them in a dense circle, and the music 
played a tune. A student then stepped forward, and gave a 
loud " hoch !" to the Professor. All joined in it three times, 
while the music blew a flourish, and the pistols thundered off all 
round. As the third " hoch !" ceased, a window opened above, 
a dark figure showed itself, and immediately below " Silentium" 
was commanded. All were still, and the Professor spoke as 
follows : — 

"Gentlemen! Ever since I have resided in Heidelberg as 
teacher, have you annually paid me this testimony of your 
respect and esteem ; but were I to live to be as old as Methuse- 



368 THE STUDENT'S 

lah, and was this scene every year renewed, it would give me 
a fresh satisfaction. 

" Gentlemen ! Let the world judge of our worth as men ; let 
the republic of the learned, which you are growing up to become 
a part of, decide on our services as learned men, on our ability 
as teachers, — the means of alone coming to a just conclusion on 
those points will still lie constantly in the hands of the student 
youth. May they always use them with wise consideration, and 
free from all party spirit. So long as we are able to labour 
with the vigour of men for the good of the High-School, will 
our honest endeavours to fill our posts worthily as teachers, not 
be in vain ; and we rejoice in this glad consciousness that we 
find in the acknowledgments of the student youth, only an echo 
of that which our inner self declares. But when the zenith of 
our career is past, so comes by degrees the weakness, and with 
it the doubtfulness of age ; and then does it delight us to find in 
the acknowledgments of others, the conviction that, although our 
hair has become whitened with the snow of age, yet our labour 
still preserves its freshness and its green. And the Ruperto- 
Carola is also an ancient and venerable stem, which ages in 
their flight have already visited with their storms ; but, if these 
storms have often and fiercely shook it, they have never been 
able to uproot it. So long as teachers dwell under the shadow 
of this tree, who, anxiously seeking its prosperity, cherish and 
nourish the old trunk ; so long as scholars make to it their pil- 
grimage, who seek knowledge earnestly, so long shall Ruperto- 
Carola flourish and bloom. 

[Here the Professor went over the past year in review, and 
stated what it had brought both of good and evil to the uni- 
versity, and then continued.] 

" May Ruperto-Carola ever possess scholars, of whose ap- 
proval an honest man will be proud ! May yet many an age 
on the festive day resound the cry of — ' Vivat Ruperto-Carola!' " 

The sons of the Muses here joined in with their thundering 
" vivats !" The music made a flourish — the pistols resounded. 

*• Once more," cried the Professor, in conclusion, " my hearty 
thanks for this proof of your love. May your Fatherland re- 



NEW YEAR'S EVE. 369 

ceive you in a while with pride from our arms, where it yet 
only reluctantly leaves you for your good. May you live long 
and happy !" 

The professor withdrew from the window ; the music played 
yet another tune, and the troop then marched onwards. The 
four friends having separated themselves from the throng, in 
order to return home, heard yet for a long time, the distant up- 
roar of the merry students, and the sounding of the fire-arms. 

We must here further observe, that not only such night-music 
is brought ; but also on some occasions, in order to do the more 
honour to the professors, the so-called solemn night-music, 
attended by a greater procession of the students, who carry 
torches, and have their appointed marshals and officers, to 
maintain order in the procession. The description of a torch- 
train will yet follow. Before this arrives at the house of the 
Professor, two or three deputies proceed thither in a carriage. 
These, in full gala costume, wait upon him for whom the com- 
pliment is intended, and make him a short address. The Pro- 
fessor returns them his thanks, and as he has always become 
aware of the intention of the students, he has his bottle of cham- 
pagne ready, which he sets before the deputies, and anstosses 
with them. They retire as the torch-train approaches the house, 
and when the customary hochs ! have been given : first, by the 
students to the honour of the Professor; and then by the Profes- 
sor in his speech to the prosperity of the university, the officers 
who have stepped forward for the purpose clash their swords 
wildly together. Before retiring they generally sing — " Stosst- 
an ! Heidelberg live thou !" and the torch-train marches away. 

In some places, as in Munich, it is the custom that the Pro- 
rector when the New-Year's-night " Hoch !" is brought him, 
invites the students in, and treats them with punch. It may 
readily be imagined how much of this liquor is consumed on 
such an occasion, and into what a predicament a Professor 
once fell in Munich, who had prepared his punch, but waited 
for the students in vain, who out of dislike omitted to pay him 
this visit of honour. 

But it was destined that the Englishman and his three friends, 



370 THE STUDENT'S 

to whom we must now return from this digression, should not 
on this night yet retire to rest. They had just arrived in the 
Karl-platz, as a man galloped past, crying out with all his 
might, — " The ice goes ! The ice goes !" 

This messenger was from Neckargemiind, sent to announce 
to the inhabitants of Heidelberg this event, which the people 
living on the banks of the river, and especially the boat-people, 
always look forward to with great anxiety, and take their mea- 
sures of precaution accordingly. But especially in that winter 
were people full of apprehension, as the ice-covering had ac- 
quired an extraordinary thickness; and indeed, in some places, 
could no longer be called a covering, since the flood in shallow 
places was completely frozen to the bottom. After a fierce and 
early-occurring season of severity, the actual warmth of spring 
suddenly broke out, and the soft south wind melted the snow so 
rapidly on the hills that the waters ran in streams down their 
sides. But all was in readiness ; and as soon as the four students 
reached the bridge, they saw, wherever the houses on the banks 
of the Neckar did not completely occupy its strand to the edge, 
groups of men, who had provided themselves with cressets with 
rolls of pitched torches, called pitch garlands, and awaited the 
spectacle with eager looks. The bridge itself was covered 
with men, and scarcely a place at the balustrade was to be 
fought out. From this place an interesting scene presented 
itself. So far as you could see the banks of the Neckar, the 
torches flamed, and threw their flickering lights on the surface 
of ice, on the crowding spectators, and on the neighbouring 
landscape. 

In the city itself, most of the houses were lit up for the festi- 
val, while above them, in the country, the mountains and the 
old castle shrouded themselves in the deepest gloom. Most of 
those who had assembled on the bridge, were men in their 
ordinary dress, who had, on the announcement of the ice-break, 
hastened hither from the punch-bowl. But others had been 
roused from their beds, and exhibited themselves in costumes 
singular enough, over which they had hastily thrown their 
cloaks ; out of which their nightcaps peeped above. 



NEW YEAR'S EVE. 37 j 

The explosion, as of distant thunder, was now heard, and the 
floods of water that rushed up through the disrupted ice were 
seen pouring over the surface. The ice in the neighbourhood of 
the bridge cracked and groaned aloud; deep fissures opened, 
and ran with lightning speed far and wide. But as the mass of 
waters still rushed nearer and nearer, and the ice continued to re- 
sist its pressure, the floods rose, and forcing into the streets, made 
the people assembled on the banks flee back precipitately. On 
the other side of the bridge, all hands in the mean time were 
busy removing the piles of fire-timber which were ranged there, 
and in conveying them to a safe distance. The huge fragments 
of the already up-torn ice were sent with fury over the ice-sur- 
face that yet resisted ; in some places, piling itself up into 
actual bulwarks, and in others was heaved into the streets. 
Thus it happened, that a little boy who, forgotten of the rest in 
their flight, had escaped to the top of a pile of wood, above the 
bridge, was, by one of the masses of ice which was forced 
forward by the water and driven directly under the pile, carried 
aloft, together with the pile. Ere any one could spring to his 
assistance, the moment was come when the opposing ice could 
no longer maintain its resistance to the accumulating flood. It 
burst with loud explosions, and raising itself furiously with the 
other fragments rushed forward towards the bridge. Through 
the long contest, the water had acquired the most terrible agita- 
tion, and when the victory came at once, it formed itself into a 
headlong stream, which carried the mass of ice on which the 
boy was, rapidly towards the middle of the flood. The boy, 
surrounded by the raging element, shrieked in the most fearful 
manner for help. His cries of misery were scarcely to be heard, 
but they were not necessary to fill every spectator with terror 
and commiseration. But who shall help him ! Many an able 
swimmer was there, but none would undertake so desperate an 
enterprise. Some cried out to throw a rope from the bridge 
that the boy might lay hold of, but this was impracticable, for 
in the moment in which the ice-masses struck the piers of the 
bridge, they were scattered into fragments, and the stone bridge 
itself trembled with the shock of their dashing against it. Already 



372 THE STUDENT'S . 

the ice-mass, on which the boy sate in despair, approached the 
piers. Every spectator watched the horrible catastrophe with 
breathless expectation; when the masses of ice, which now 
passed in countless numbers, blocked up first one and then 
another arch of the bridge. There was a momentary pause in 
the progress of the ice. At the crisis of this terrific spectacle, a 
band of lively music approached the bridge. It was the wild 
troop of students, who, having completed their round, and 
finished all their Vivats ! and Lebe Hochs ! were marching past 
with their torches, and amongst them was seen the Red Fisher- 
man, who holding in one hand a torch, and in the other a pipe> 
was striding on with open breast, and in his shirt-sleeves. 

" Ackermann ! Ackermann I" shouted the multitude, " he must 
help! He alone can do it!" 

The approaching train rushed upon the bridge ; the torch- 
bearers flew to the balustrades to cast a light upon the scene — 
the music ceased in an instant. The Red Fisherman, on whom 
all eyes were turned, cast but one glance towards the child ; 
threw his torch on the ice below, and ran down from the bridge 
to the banks of the Neckar. It was high time, for the ice-masses 
again began to put themselves in motion. Boldly the fisherman 
sprung from one block of ice to another ; already was he near 
the boy, when the ice broke beneath him ; yet he fought despe- 
rately against the rushing water. He reached the boy, and 
endeavoured to raise himself upon the ice-mass ; — at the same 
moment it went to pieces, and both the fisherman and the boy 
disappeared for some seconds. The people gave them up as 
lost for ever, when a voice was heard from the other side of the 
bridge, crying " A rope ! a rope !" It was the fisherman him- 
self, who stood on the basement at the foot of the pier with the 
boy in his arms ! He stood up to the middle in water, but he 
held fast by a projection of the pier. A rope with a large piece 
of wood tied to it was speedily let down by some of the fisher- 
men, and Ackermann with the boy was hauled up with the help 
of the students. As soon as his head appeared on a level with 
the parapet, he handed over the boy to the people, and then 
himself leaped over the iron balustrade. With a loud " Vivat !' 



NEW YEAR'S EVE. 373 

he was here received ; and the musicians blew the finest 
flourish that they had executed on this remarkable New- Year's 
night. The troop of students accompanied the Red Fisherman 
with loud acclamations, who quickly put himself in dry clothes; 
not regarding some slight wounds which he had received from 
the ice-masses. The students took him into their midst, and 
" Free-night ! free-night !" resounded on all sides. 

This cry of triumph means that they will revel the whole 
night through ; and this takes place either at the room of some 
student, or at a kneip. In the last case, the permission of the 
police is necessary. These free-nights are only held on extra- 
ordinary occasions, or, as in many cases, when without any 
particular cause the sons of the Muses find themselves in a 
thoroughly joyous humour. 

These were especially frequent formerly amongst the so-called 
Lumpia. This means a union of students, who bind themselves 
for a certain time to give themselves up to the Lump ; that is to 
doing nothing, and to the wildest pleasures, — to drinking, play- 
ing at hazard, and so on. To the honour of the students these 
wild engagements are rare, and are in the strictest manner pro- 
hibited by the laws. 

The Red Fisherman warmed his stiffened limbs at the kneip 
with punch, and a collection was made on the spot, whose pro- 
ceeds were handed to him as his reward. The four friends in 
the mean time had taken the child, and brought it into a neigh- 
bouring inn, where it was undressed and put to bed, until the 
mother, who did not till some time afterwards learn the whole 
of the circumstances, could be fetched. 

After the many events of the night, the wearied party has- 
tened home, to dream over again what they had witnessed, 
variously metamorphosed by fancy, and one image mixed up 
and exchanged with another. 

32 



CHAPTER XXL 



THE MAKCHING FORTH. 



We Burschen freshly forth to the number of seventeen hundred ; thou at our 
head, and butchers and tailors and shopkeepers behind us, and innkeeper and 
barber, and all the trade guilds of the city, swearing to storm the place, if a hair 
of the Burschens' heads is but crumpled. — Schiller'' s Robber. 



Before we permit the Student to depart from the happy 
Burschendom into Philisterium, we will see in what manner he 
generally takes his farewell of the university. 

For this, there are three ways : either the quiet way, in which 
we shall presently see Mr. Traveller depart ; or the still quieter 
one in the stillness of the night, in order to avoid the hands 
of his creditors ; or, finally, the compulsory one, which the 
Bursche must generally take who has made too much noise in 
the world. 

We have already made ourselves acquainted with different 
excesses on which lie the penalties of banishment, and we will 
here speak of the greatest of all these excesses, at least of that, 
in respect to its application to members, the very greatest — the 
Marching Forth. As the duel is resorted to, to enforce justice 
from one student towards another; so it is the Marching Forth, 
in which the students not merely leave the bounds of order, but 
the university-city itself, which is regarded as the means of 
avenging the injured body upon the whole city, for an en- 
croachment upon its rights. That the reader may obtain a 



THE AUSZUG; OR, MARCHING FORTH. 375 

clear notion of the Marching Forth, we will describe the one 
which took place amongst the students of Heidelberg, in the 
year 1828. 

The Museum in Heidelberg, a building dedicated to social 
entertainment and pleasures, was built in 1827, and completed 
in the following year. The rules for the management of the 
institution, which, after careful consideration and proof, were 
adopted, did not in some particulars please a part of the stu- 
dents ; others, however, found nothing to object to, and about 
seventy students immediately enrolled themselves as members. 
Instead now of leaving every one to his liberty, a part of the 
discontented came to the conclusion, that the museum must, so 
far as the university was concerned, be put altogether under the 
bann. As it was now found that they laboured zealously to this 
end, the teachers took the proper measures to prevent such a 
circumstance. A member of the senate, in whom the better 
portion of the students had ahvays the strongest moral reliance, 
endeavoured by every means to make such of the students as 
stood high in the respect of their fellows, clearly to comprehend, 
that such a bann had the severest enactment of academical law 
against it; that it might render the Baden students unfortunate 
for life, if they allowed themselves to become partisans; that it 
might lead to the most angry contentions, if those who had 
already become members of the Museum, would not suffer 
themselves to be compelled to such an act of evacuation ; and 
the Senate could not remain unconcerned spectators, by any 
means, of such disorder, not just then especially, as on the 
near approaching name-day of the Grand Duke, the Museum 
was to be solemnly and ceremoniously opened. 

But the intelligence quickly spread, that the Burschenschaft, 
which by degrees and secretly had again sprung up, had pro- 
nounced the bann with great formality and haste, and that they 
were labouring with all their might to compel all other persons 
into the undertaking, and even to draw the natives into the 
matter along with them. Active measures were therefore 
unavoidable on the part of the Senate. It accordingly decreed, 
on the 13th of August, that immediately with the break of the 



376 THE AUSZUG; OR 

following day, the members of the Burschenschaft should be 
brought to trial on account of the promulgation of the bann, 
and that they should be arrested in such a way, that there 
might be no concerted plan laid, upon what they should state 
in their defence, and in such a way also that no student should 
be absent from home. 

On the 14th of August, the beadles received at a quarter to 
four in the morning, the order to pronounce house-arrest to 
some, and to remove others to the university prison, preparatory 
to their being called up for hearing. The trial began imme- 
diately, and would have been completed the same day, had the 
laws found obedience. But immediately on the sitting of the 
court, there arose in every street, the cry of " Bursch, come 
forth !" This is a call which every student must uncon- 
ditionally obey, on pain of proscription. It is therefore, as a 
compulsion in opposition to the laws, and as the most con- 
venient method of speedily raising a tumult, punished with the 
sharper expulsion. 

So ran the ringleaders through the city with aloud " Bursch, 
come forth !" drew the students together from all quarters, and 
rushed with them, with great uproar, into the front of the uni- 
versity, where the Senate had speedily assembled, and stood in 
presence of the tumultuous throng at an open window. Instead 
of applying to the Prorector, as they should have done, had 
they ground of complaint, they even treated with contempt two 
summonses from the Senate to send deputies to explain their 
claims or demands, and immediately in the face of the Senate 
proceeded, with loud outcries, to make a desperate onset on the 
door of the adjoining academical buildings, with sticks and 
kicks, so that the upper beadle, to prevent further mischief, 
w'as obliged to liberate the incarcerated students. This being 
accomplished, they commenced their march forth towards 
Schwetzengen. 

The whole city was in uproar. The shops were closed out 
of fear of the wild faction. Every where chaises rattled 
through the streets ; the boot-foxes ran here and there ; the 
inhabitants looked full of trouble out of their windows ; when 



MARCHING FORTH. 377 

a student, with his sword in his hand, galloped through the 
streets with the fearful cry — " Bursch, come forth !" Most of 
the students went along with the train, only because the Com- 
ment, or Students' Code of Laws, demanded it, without well 
knowing for what purpose. The wild throng rushed into the 
houses of the dilatory, in order to rouse them out of bed. 
Hastily, every one packed up what was most necessary and 
threw it into the carriage, or buckled it upon a horse ; and 
when no longer carriage or horse was procurable, the boot- 
foxes must become baggage-bearers. 

In order to rouse all into a necessary degree of resentment, 
and to keep it up, the ringleaders circulated false stories. 
They spread it every where that the authorities had dragged 
the students out of their beds in the night ; that they had thrust 
them into a hole where none could stand upright, and where 
there was not a single seat to rest upon ; while the fact was, 
that they who were said to have suffered so much maltreatment 
in the night, were conducted to the academical buildings in 
clear daylight. Yet, in the excitement of the moment, these 
false reports found credit, and with the " Bursch, come forth !" 
which raged like a running fire through the streets, they availed 
in a very short time, to bring the whole student host together. 

They who were on horseback placed themselves at the head 
of the procession ; rode hither and thither, in order to quicken 
the motions of the dilatory, and to maintain the whole train in 
order. A long line of carriages followed them, of every 
description that could be got together in the haste of the occa- 
sion. Part were chaises, in which the students rode ; part were 
wagons, on which were hastily loaded their packages. All the 
students had armed themselves in haste, as well as they might,, 
with sv/ords, rapiers, and pistols. They who found no place in 
the carriages, or on horseback, went on foot, and a great 
swarm of boot-foxes followed who were loaded with all kinds 
of house-gear, as pipes, dressing-gowns, coats, and so on. A vast 
crowd of people, consisting of school-youths who had to thank 
the students to-day for a holiday, and of all kinds of people who, 
in a university city, draw support from the students, added 

32* 



378 THE AUZUG; OR, 

themselves to the train, and increased the uproar and alarm, 
with curses and insults, that the students should be suffered to 
go away. The inhabitants of the city looked down in wonder 
and curiosity from their windows roused from their sleep by 
the noise, and gazed on the motley throng who, with shouts and 
singing of Burschen-songs, swept by. 

At length the rear of the train disappeared through the city 
gate, and a strange silence reigned in the deserted town. The 
doors opened, and the Philistines stepped out into the streets 
together, to talk over the fatal story. In the mean time a pro- 
fessor might be seen, with serious countenance and hasty steps, 
hurrying through the streets, and people looked doubtfully after 
him, or one or another of the citizens detained him to snatch a 
couple of words as to what was to be done in this necessity of 
the Fatherland. Here and there also might be seen a solitary 
student who had not been able to join the train in time, now 
hastening towards one or other of the city gates ; since every 
one is compelled, on pain of entire proscription, to quit the city 
in case of a Marching-Forth, even if he does not join the train. 

When the train arrived in Schwetzengen, the discontented 
saw that the territory of Baden was not safe for them, and that 
by passing the frontier they would enjoy more freedom. Sud- 
denly there followed them from many quarters the report " The 
dragoons come, to fall upon us !" and all ran with wild haste to 
Ketsch, a village on the Rhine, where they caused themselves 
to be ferried over into Rheinish Bavaria. This false report of 
this falling of the troopers upon them had thus arisen. Imme- 
diately on the occurrence of the excess here related, the Senate 
held it necessary for the protection of the city, hastily to request 
a hundred dragoons to be sent for from Mannheim. These hun- 
dred dragoons marched out of Mannheim, about nine miles 
below Ketsch, only at half-past two o'clock in the afternoon, 
after the students had, in fact, crossed the Rhine at Ketsch; 
and they never directed their march at all against the students, 
but rode direct to Heidelberg. As it was then there well ascer- 
tained that the Marchers-Forth had taken up their quarters for 
the present in Frankenthal, where part of them were lodged in 



MARCHING FORTH. 379 

the town, and part of them had encamped in the neighbourhood 
under tents, and that many of them had become involved in the 
transaction through erroneous information, a member of the 
Senate was requested by the Curatorium to proceed to Frank- 
enthal, and to endeavour to bring the young men to reason. 
This took place on the sixteenth of August, but without success. 
On the contrary, the emissary of the Senate was sent back with 
a remonstrance, very numerously signed, which concluded with 
a menacing clause, and demanded that the Senate should gua- 
rantee the whole body of students against all penalties, on 
account of this transaction, and should cause Heidelberg, with- 
out delay, to be evacuated by the troops. It was also added, 
by word of mouth, that the bann pronounced on the Museum, 
could not be retracted. 

A similar endeavour, made through the university Amtmann, 
on the eighteenth of August, received as little attention, although 
the Museum, in many points, had yielded to their demands, and 
thereupon was immediately relieved from the proscription. The 
resentment against the Senate continued unabated; and therefore, 
on the evening of the eighteenth, in all haste, the academy was 
declared to be under the bann ; this, however, was not done 
through the voting of individuals, but effected by the dreaded 
ringleaders pronouncing the bann, demanding then the others to 
accede to it, though many were opposed to it; and thus the 
resolution was passed in a painful silence, since individuals saw 
dangers on all sides of them if they refused. Yet in that night, 
and in the course of the next day, numbers quitted Frankenthal, 
and returned towards Heidelberg. Here, when they came to 
understand exactly the real circumstances of the case, there 
was regret and general discontent. A great number of the 
most noble young men loudly declared the bann to be disho- 
nourable, to be null and void, because brought about by decep- 
tion; to be contrary to all custom and precedent, and thereupon 
came some of the most artful proceedings to be talked of: for 
example, that in the remonstrance sent to the Senate, there 
were forged names of students who were absent at the time, 
and that the menacing clause had been surreptitiously intro- 



380 THE AUSZUG; OR, 

duced. In fact, the natives of Baden had had no part m the 
declaration of the bann. 

On the twentieth of August the classes again were opened, 
while the trials were still proceeding. The ringleaders were 
punished with expulsion ; others were banished for a certain 
term ; and a greater number imprisoned for a longer or 
shorter period. The attention of the court was turned by these 
events afresh on the still continuance of the Burschenschaft, and 
it was pursued with yet greater severity of proscription than 
before. But the Studentschaft had so far achieved its original 
object, that its demands on the Museum were for the most part 
conceded. 

Such Marchings-Forth are of rare occurrence, yet this is not 
the only one that has taken place in Heidelberg. Many years 
before this, occurred a something similar one, on account of 
contentions with the military, which then lay in Heidelberg. 

A student, as he went past the watch-house, forgot to take 
the pipe from his mouth. He came into contention thereupon 
with the soldier on guard, who called an officer, by whom the 
student was very much insulted. This gave occasion to a 
Marching-Forth, which, however, proceeded no further than to 
Neuenheim, about a mile from the city, whence the students at 
once returned, all their demands being comphed with; which 
were, that a full amnesty should be guaranteed for all that was 
past, and that the soldiers should be removed. Moreover, the 
military were obliged to post themselves on the bridge, the 
officer at their head, and so present arms while the students 
marched past again into the city in triumph, and with music 
playing before them. 

Where soldiers and students are brought together in one city, 
collisions are inevitable; at least in the smaller cities, where 
both cannot be sufficiently mixed and lost in the great mass of 
the people. Many contentions have heretofore arisen out of 
such collocation ; and thus occurred also the Marching-Forth 
from Giessen in the year 1819. The military having in the 
most unallowable manner acted towards the students, and one 
of the students coming to a quarrel with an officer, was ex- 



MARCHING FORTH. 381 

tremely insulted by him. There appeared in consequence of this 
a ministerial rescript, in which it was ordered that the military 
in future should only be called out against the students by a 
requisition from the Senate, and that all acts of illegality already 
alleged against the military on the part of the students should be 
strictly investigated, and every just satisfaction made to them. 
There immediately appeared a judgment on the part of the 
military college, by which the officer who had insulted the 
student was condemned to fourteen days' close arrest, which 
was immediately to take place ; and was, morever, required, 
in the presence of the rector of the university and of the colonel 
of the officer, to beg pardon of the student. The aforesaid 
ministerial rescription was now made known to the students by 
four deputies of the Senate, who waited on them in the place of 
their retreat ; whereupon they immediately resolved to return 
to Giessen, and to restore every thing to its old course and 
order. 

To give yet another example of a Marching-Forth, we may 
take the disturbance in Gottingen in the year 1818. Conten- 
tions arose between the then students and the members of some 
of the trade guilds ; amongst others, wdth that of the butchers' 
guild. The house of a butcher who had especially insulted the 
students was very much damaged, and the windows of another 
house beaten in. A commission was despatched by the govern- 
ment to Gottingen to inquire into and quell the disturbance. The 
means, however, which were adopted in order to bring the in- 
censed student youth again within the bounds of order, were not 
the most fitting; and the calling in of the military only made the 
matter worse. The students refused to succumb to a strange 
power. They boldly attacked the hussars; these drew their 
swords, and in the skirmish many sudents were dangerously 
wounded. About eight hundred of the students now marched 
out to Witzenhausen. They sent by the hands of four deputies, 
a memorial to the Senate, who delivered it and returned. In 
this document they complained, that one of their fellow-students 
had been maltreated by a butcher, and that the butcher had not 
been visited with the punishment due to his offence; that the 



382 THE AUSZUG; OR, 

sending of a royal commission altered the condition of their 
rights ; that the authority of the same had been so far illegal 
that the reigning prince had not yet confirmed it ; and finally, 
that the people had been attacked by the military in time of 
peace, whereby many had been wounded. 

The ministry, thereupon, issued a rescript, which commanded 
the whole body of students to return, and if they refused obe- 
dience, threatened them with the loss of every claim to future 
employment by the state, as well as of all stipends that they 
might enjoy. 

After an absence of more than eight days, the greater part of 
the students, who had scattered themselves through the country, 
returned, exerting, however, on their side a right of retaliation, 
by declaring the university to be for two and a half years under 
the bann to all foreigners. The foreigners immediately took 
their departure, and only about six hundred students were left 
in Gottingen, — about half of the number who had studied in it 
before those disturbances took place. 

In Witzenhausen the people had fleeced the students of nearly 
all their cash. All necessaries of life, during their abode 
there, were raised to a monstrous price, and the burgers of that 
place charged them individually for a week's lodging as much 
as a louis-d'or. Therefore now, to quit Gottingen, they were 
obliged to dispose of every thing that they could possibly spare. 

Many natives also, spite of the menaces of the ministers, 
quitted the cities ; and Gottingen, in fact, presented a melan- 
choly aspect. The departure of the foreigners was injurious to 
the city, in two respects ; many workmen depended on them for 
subsistence, and besides this, they left many debts behind them. 
It was natural, in these circumstances, that many workmen too 
should quit the place, since their means of livelihood had failed, 
and thus the emptiness of Gottingen became still more apparent. 

The sentence of the ministry upon these disturbances con- 
demned one student to entire expulsion ; many to the Consilium 
abeundi, or confinement in the university prison ; and the master 
butcher also was punished with eight days' imprisonment, with 
bread and water. There was a further commission appointed 



MARCHING FORTH. 333 

for the trial of the originators of the bann, and these also were 
punished. 

Thus peace and order were again restored ; and in order to 
maintain these, precautionary measures were adopted ; namely, 
every one studying in Gottingen, and every fresh comer, must 
sign a declaration, that he would take no part in the carrying 
into effect the bann pronounced against the university ; and that 
he would never, either by word or deed, allow it to be supposed 
that he acknowledged that bann as actually existing. Spite of 
all these regulations, it was a very long time before Gottingen 
was able to regain its former state of prosperity. 

These Marchings-Forth may serve to show how jealously the 
students defend their privileges, not only against individuals, but 
even against the state. The student avenges himself upon any 
one by whom he is unjustly attacked. A ludicrous story con- 
nected with these practices occurs to our recollection, which 
happened very shortly after the tragic act of Sand. 

An actor, who played heroic characters in the theatre at 
Darmstadt, was at the supper-table in the inn there, and gave a 
loose very freely and sourly to his remarks upon students and 
universities. A student from Heidelberg, who was present, 
and had in his possession a letter to deliver to this very actor, 
determined to punish him a little for his observations, and 
therefore on this evening did not present him the letter. In the 
morning he went to the dwelling of the actor, caused his room 
to be shown to him, and finding him alone, inquired with a 

dark countenance — " Are you the Herr Court-actor F r ?" 

" Yes." — " Are you really the Herr Court-actor F r ?" — he 

reiterated sternly. *' Yes !" — ''' Now !" cried the student, with 
a loud voice, and thrusting his hand into his bosom. The poor 
hero, who imagined he had got a dagger there, darted at full 
speed away. The student laughing called him back. " Stop !" 
said he, " stop ! it is only a letter !" 

In recent times, when people are not so pliant towards the 
students, the Marchings-Forth have more and more disappeared. 
In the year 1838, the students conceived that their rights were 
infringed by the gendarmerie. They assembled at the Hirsch- 



384 THE AUSZUG; OR, 

gasse ; one of them stated the case to the rest, and invited them 
to subscribe a memorial on the subject to the Senate, request- 
ing the removal of those gendarmes. As the doors were in the 
meantime all guarded by the Chore people, so all complied with 
the invitation. When all had signed, they returned to the city 
in one body, two and two abreast ; sang " Free is the Bursch," 
and presented their memorial to the Prorector. They derived, 
however, little satisfaction from this proceeding ; and as the 
document contained expressions dishonourable to the Senate, 
some of the ringleaders were punished. 

But the cry " Bursch, come forth !" has not always been 
employed for the purpose of efTecting a Marching-Forth in 
opposition to the laws. It has on many an occasion served to 
assemble speedily the Burschen for the noblest objects. It was 
thus in Heidelberg, when at one time the bitterness against the 
Jews had spread itself through Germany. Suddenly a great 
throng of Handwerksburschen in this city also, and others of that 
class who have nothing to lose and always a chance to win 
something in every revolution, had got together, and scoured 
the streets, crying " Hep ! Hep !" They hastened to the houses 
of the Jews, to plunder them and mishandle their inmates. The 
city soldiers were called upon to disperse the rioters, but in a 
cowardly manner refused to do their duty. People were in a 
great perplexity how to protect the unfortunate Jews. Some 
students met the then Prorector, who was on his way to the 
Senate, and engaged to him speedily to restore quiet if he would 
only allow them to cry, " Bursch, come forth !" The Prorector 
took the responsibility upon himself, and scarcely was the shout 
of " Bursch, come forth !" raised, when from all sides came run- 
ning the students, armed with their swords. One of those who 
came first, placed himself at the door of one of the richest Jews 
in the city, against whom the mass of the mob were most despe- 
rate, and drawing his sword, called to the pressing throngs, full 
of zeal for the good cause — " Only over my corpse lies your 
way into this house !" The assailants fell back with terror ; 
other students speedily came to his aid, and chased away the 
rabble. One of the professors took a sword from the hand of a 



MARCHING FORTH. 395 

student, and led on the sons of the Muses. They surrounded 
the houses which the rioters had akeady forced their way into, 
holding their drawn swords before the windows so as to prevent 
all escape, while others, rushing into the house, seized the plun- 
derers, and gave them into the hands of the police. Peace was 
in a very short time restored. The Jews made a public acknow- 
ledgment of their thanks to the academicians, and the Senate 
cited before them such of the students as had most distino;uished 
themselves, in order to thank them themselves, and through 
them to thank all the others who had given such timely and 
successful aid. 

In other circumstances of danger too, the students have often 
distinguished themselves. This has been especially the case in 
fires, where, placing themselves in long rows from the scene of 
burning to the river, they have made the water-buckets pass 
from hand to hand with astonishing celerity, and all the time 
have relieved their work with singing. 

Once also they executed, in Heidelberg, justice in the promptest 
manner. It was when, at the instigation of Prussia, Baden lost 
again the freedom of the press, which the Grand Duke Leopold 
had conferred on it at his entrance on the government. Over 
this circumstance a great bitterness was felt in Heidelberg. Just 
at this crisis the Prussian students at that university celebrated 
the birthday of their king, as they are accustomed to do every 
year. This took place in a Commers in Neckarsteinach, and 
as they are often accustomed, they returned to the city in the 
evening in an illuminated barge, down the Neckar, with fire- 
works. A report had spread itself, that the people, who beheld 
the spectacle from the Neckar bridge, would insult the Prus- 
sians, when they passed under the bridge. The police were 
concerting preventive measures, when the other students re- 
quested to be allowed to maintain the peace. It was granted to 
them ; and in the evening, they awaited quietly in their kneips 
the intelligence of the approach of the festive barge. They then 
spread themselves amongst the crowd upon the bridge. As the 
boat now drew near, and the customary " Vivat, the king of 
Prussia !" was heard resounding from it, the mob on the bridge 

33 



386 THE AUSZUG; OR, 

began to bawl out a " Pereat !" and one Handwerksbursch was 
bold enough to fling down a stone. In a moment such a storm 
of cuffs and boxes on the ears was rained down from all quar- 
ters on the disturbers, that they were compelled to fly from the 
hands of those who were an overmatch for them ; thus the 
bridge was speedily evacuated by the whole tribe, and the barge 
came to its anchorage without further molestation. 

Another cause which often compels the students to quit the 
university, and indeed in all stillness, is debt. That the young 
men at the High-School may readily fall into debt, is easy to 
conceive. Most of them were till this time at schools where 
they were quite dependent on their parents, and have now, for 
the first time, considerable sums in their hands; and beyond this, 
the way into debt is made so particularly easy to the student. 
The landlords, the shopkeepers, and all others, who derive an 
advantage from the students, freely give credit, or pump, as the 
students term it. They do it the more willingly, since it is a 
good opportunity to make the account a little larger (since the 
English and students, as the student says, generally chop above 
the ear, that is, suffer themselves to be overcharged) ; and more- 
over, the students look on it as a certain prerogative, of which 
many are compelled to avail themselves, who, especially in their 
first year, need more than their remittances. A master tailor 
who was much in mode amongst the students, once attempted 
to put an end to this silently acknowledged privilege, but it cost 
him dear. This man sent round a list amongst his colleagues, 
by which every one who signed his name bound himself to give 
no more credit to any student. But this list had not circulated 
far, when the students became aware of the fact. They assem- 
bled themselves that evening at their kneip, armed with their 
swords, proceeded thence to the house of the tailor, dashed all 
the windows in, broke open the doors, and rushed into the work- 
shops and store-rooms of the tailor; where they cut to pieces, 
and bored through all his pieces of cloth and ready-made clothes, 
so that they were totally ruined. The actors, indeed, were 
punished, and required to pay all the damages, but the tailor had 



MARCHING FORTH. 397 

for ever lost the business of the students, and his fellow-trades- 
men took warning from the transaction. 

The academical laws have endeavoured to put a check on this 
facility of debt-making, by determining that all demands for 
credited wines and spirituous liquors, excepting the regular 
choppin of wine or beer set before his guests by the landlord or 
master of an ordinary, — all demands of the masters of coffee 
and billiard-rooms, as such, — all play debts, demands for car- 
riage, sledge, or horse-hire for more than one journey, which 
may be made on students, shall not be recoverable in a court of 
law; and it is also enacted to what extent credit for all neces- 
saries of life, for books, and such things, may be given, so as 
yet to leave a legal right of recovery. In order to make them- 
selves secure against a student, whom they are afraid may 
attempt to quit without discharging his debt, the creditor is 
accustomed to take the usual and effectual way, that is, to go 
and lay an arrest on his departure-testimonial, which will then 
not be handed to the student by the university office, till he has 
paid his debts; by which means it becomes very difficult to quit 
the place without a fair settlement with his creditors. One 
way, however, remains for him. In the university cities are 
people who lend money to the students at a high rate of interest. 
These the student pumps, as he calls it, — and, as claims for 
money lent to students are untenable before the court, these 
people generally get the loss when a student runs off, as well as 
all those other creditors who have not protested against the 
delivery of his testimonial. This burning through, or running 
through the rags, as starting without paying is called, was 
formerly much more frequent than at present. If it now some- 
times happens, yet the cases are very rare in which they do not 
afterwards pay as soon as they are in circumstances to do it. 
When these escapes were made, it was generally at midnight; 
or in this manner, — the youth's companions accompanied him in 
a Comitat, or one of their regular departure-processions, but 
another student was set in the first carriage, in the place of 
honour, as though it were he who was leaving. When they 
had, however, quitted the city, the real departer took the place 



388 THE AUSZUG; OR, 

of honour, and the pretended one then quietly returned to the 
city. On such occasions was sung the song, of course not till 
the immediate danger was past — 

Forth from here, the Manichseans watch us. 

The Manichceans are the creditors, so called after the old 
much reprobated sect of the Manichj3eans, who in the third cen- 
tury held the doctrines of the Persian heretic Manes. 

Upon a wearied steed, a Jena student flew, 
In stumbling career, the fields and meadows through ; 
And full of dread, with which the Philistines imbued him, 
Still wildly looked behind, lest creditors pursued him. 

The Renommist. 

Mr. Traveller had now, in Heidelberg, studied for half a year 
the customs and general life of the students. Gladly would he 
yet longer have sojourned amongst his new friends; but he could 
only remain on the continent till autumn, and wished to make 
use of this time, in acquainting himself with some others of the 
most celebrated of the universities of Germany. After long 
delay, a day was finally fixed during the Easter vacation. His 
way lay through Leipsic and Berlin, and it was agreed to set 
out in a hired carriage as far as Weinheim, there, till the arrival 
of the post-wagon, to celebrate the last farewell. Towards five 
o'clock, on the appointed morning, Freisleben and HofTmann 
went to call their friend Von Kronen, and were astonished to 
find the long-sleeper already up and prepared. " I'll tell you 
how it happened," said he ; " I had given my boot-fox orders to 
rouse me out of bed at four o'clock, be it as it would. This 
morning, while it was yet quite dark, he rushed into my room 
with his lantern, and startled me out of the sweetest dreams, 
with the cry of ' Fire ! fire !' ' Where then, where V I de- 
manded. ' Get up,' said he, ' in a moment, and come with me.' 
I sprung out of bed, threw on my clothes, again demanding, 
' Tell me though, where is the fire V He then quietly answered, 
' Here, you see it, in my lantern !' " 

The friends laughed at the ingenuity of the boot-fox, and has- 



MARCHING FORTH. 389 

tened to Mr. Traveller. They found him already dressed, and 
busy with his boot-fox, in packing the dress-suit in which he had 
yesterday paid his farewell visits to the professors. The room 
looked desolate and inhospitable ; and on the walls on every side 
peeped forth the nails, on which had been suspended pipes, pic- 
tures, and other house-gear. On the floor, packing paper lay 
every where in heaps ; here and there lay a pair of old shoes, 
some old boxes, and the Uke; upon one chair a trunk, and on 
another a hat-case. In one corner of the room lay a heap of 
books which were to be sent direct to England. The writing- 
desk was open, and there lay the purse, the watch, and all that 
belongs to the pocket, whilst a stick, and the umbrella in its case 
leaned against it. 

Astonished at these changes, Freisleben's spaniel ran about 
the room, smelling at every thing in the most particular manner. 
The carriage now rattled up; the stout driver made his appear- 
ance, and announced that all was ready. Hastily the maid 
brought in the coffee, and hastily was it drunk. The driver and 
the boot-fox carried down the luggage ; Mr. Traveller put on 
his travelling coat, the friends lit their pipes, and all hastened to 
the carriage. The maid was below and wished a happy jour- 
ney ; the boot-fox, to whom some remaining pipes and the little 
coffee-machine was given, said — " I thank you many times ; 
and, fare you well ;" and as the carriage set off, the old House- 
Philistine thrust his head with his white nightcap out of the 
window above, and with sleepy voice cried — " a happy jour- 
ney !" But the maid remained standing at the door, and looked 
after the carriage till it turned the next corner. 

Mr. Traveller carried with him from Heidelberg only happy 
recollections, and rarely can we say this of a place ; therefore,, 
as the carriage swept round the turn of the road at Neuenheim, 
he bade a last and regretful farewell to the Uttle city which, 
stretched along the bank of the Neckar. 

Having arrived in Weinheim, the friends first took a walk up 
the lovely Birkenau Thai. They had just returned thence, and 
seated themselves in the inn to a breakfast d, la fourchette, when 

33* 



390 THE AUSZUG ; OR, 

a whole troop of youths arrived on foot. They were clad in 
blue-and-white frockcoats and blouses, with belt round the waist. 
wore for the most part straw hats ; carried each a stout knap- 
sack on his back ; in their hands held short cudgels ; and had a 
basket-flask suspended by a riband that passed over the breast- 
They were Wurtzburg students, who had penetrated by Wer- 
theim into the Odenwald, and had traversed that ancient and 
forest land in every direction. Von Kronen and Freisleben 
found amongst them some old acquaintances. They gave them 
a hearty welcome ; and the new-comers, who were full of life 
and good humour, related many of their travel adventures, — 
how they came to a village where it was the Kirchweih, or 
wake ; and how the young bauers came to hard cudgels with 
them, because they had enticed from them the loveliest maidens 
on the dancing ground ; of the Wild Hunter, the Felsenmeere, 
or Sea of Rocks, and of the solitary Jager-house, where they 
had been obliged to pass the night on straw, as there were no 
beds to be found for so many guests. They felicitated them- 
selves on all the pleasure that they promised themselves in Hei- 
delberg. The whole company was very merry ; they did not 
spare the excellent Hupberger, and totally forgot that on the 
heels of this welcome must come a speedy parting. But sud- 
denly the landlord stepped in, and announced that the Eilwagen 
had arrived. The whole company broke up hastily, and ac- 
companied Mr. Traveller to it. It was high time when they 
arrived at it, and the Englishman had scarcely leisure to take a 
hurried leave of his friends. He promised to send them notice 
of the other universities that he should visit, gave them another 
hearty shake of the hand — the postilion had blown his bugle, 
and the wagon rolled on its way. " Tell the English," cried 
Freisleben to him, as he still looked out of the window, " that 
the German students are not so bad as they have been described 
to them." *' Honi soit qui mal y pense," replied Mr. Traveller. 
While this passed, the other students had raised the 



MARCHING FORTH. 391 



SONG OF THE DEPARTING BURSCH. 



A Mossy Bursch now forth I Vv'end, , 
O God ! Philister's house defend.* 
Yes, native home, I come to thee ; 
Myself must now Philistine be. 

Farewell, ye crooked streets and straight, 
Through you no more I walk elate : 
With songs no more make you astir, , 
With noisy joy and clink to spur. 

Ye Kneips, why would ye me delay, 
My sojourn here has passed away. 
Oh ! beckon not with your long arm, 
Make not my thirsty heart thus warm. 

God bless the College ! How she there 
Stands in her stately grandeur fair ! 
Ye twilight halls, both great and small. 
Ye win me back no more at all. 

And thou too, from thy gabled height, 
O Career ! see'st in vain ray flight. 
For wretched lodging, night and day, 
A Pereat, greet thee thus for aye ! 

But bloom thou — and, as thus I go, 
Old Battle-house, still » Live thou, hoch !" 
Yet many a victor-garland be. 
Thou house of honour, won in thee ! 

Then come I— ah ! to Liebchen's door, — 
Look out, dear girl, look out once more ! 
Look out with thy sweet eyes so clear, 
And with thy dark and clustering hair. 

* House of the Philistine in which he had lived. 



392 THE AUSZUG ; OR, MARCHING FORTH. 

And shouldst thou e'en have me forgot, 
A like reward I wish thee not. 
Go, thou mayst seek a lover new, 
But be he gay, like me, and true. 

But farther, farther, now awaits 
My course, stand wide ye ancient gates! 
Light is my heart, and glad my track ; 
My blessing, city, waft I back ! 

Ye Brothers ! now, around me press, 
Let my heart feel not its distress. 
On gallant steeds with gladsome song. 
Go ye with me the way along. 

In the next Dorf will we alight. 
In our last wine our friendship plight. 
Now, here ye Brothers, — wo's the case ! — 
Our last glass take ! — our last embrace ! 

Gustav. Schwab. 



CHAPTER XXII. 



THE STUDENT S FUNERAL, ETC. 



And of our brethren, is there one departed — 
By pale Death summoned in his bloom ? 

We weep, and wish him peace, all saddest hearted ; 
Peace to our brother's silent tomb. 

We weep, and wish that peace may dwell 
In our dear brother's silent cell. 



" What becomes then of the student at the last?' the reader 
will ask — " of him whom we have to this point followed in silent 
observation through all his ways, and along his whole course?" 

If, as has often been the case, we were to consider the 
Student-life as a disease, we should say with the Pathologist: — 
" Every disease can, by possibility, have only one of three 
terminations : the first, in health ; the second, in some other 
disease ; and the last, in death." But we are far from looking 
upon it in this light. Yet we can, regarding the Student-life in 
its great outlines as a state of health, assign it the same issues, 
with the exception that we hold the Philisterium, to use the 
student's own language, to be the natural sequence of the 
natural university life. 

It is truly a sorrowful reflection, that of the numbers who 
seek the university at the same time, it is only the smaller 
portion of them who reach that goal after which they strive, or 
should strive. Not that we mean to say that death snatches 



394 THE STUDENT'S 

away so many from the midst of them. No ; the mortality 
in general, and especially in Heidelberg, amongst the student 
youth, is very small indeed. But what we now have in our 
eye will be more clearly shown, if we explain ourselves on the 
nature of the object to be attained by the student. Has he, 
indeed, attained that object, when he has piled up in his head 
laboriously and without order, a store of things worthy to be 
known in his peculiar profession 1 No, that is not it ; although 
people who are destitute of an enlightened grasp of mind, are 
accustomed to see great perfection in the education of a young 
man who, returning from a learned institution, is found to have 
gathered up all facts like a schoolboy with amazing diligence, 
so that when any one says A to him, he can immediately say 
B and C. We believe, for our part, the fruit of inquiry to be 
this : that the young man learns to perceive that the individual 
study to which he especially devotes himself, is only one branch 
of the great tree of knowledge; that no science, sundered 
entirely from the rest, can proceed prosperously to its own 
completion; that a science pursued alone and in an isolated 
manner, cannot be properly called a science ; but that all the 
sciences stretch forth their sisterly hands to each other, and 
form themselves into a beautiful circle, out of which they will 
not suffer themselves to be torn by an unskilful person. 

He will perceive, that a well-grounded study of professional 
science even, can only base itself on a philosophical foundation; 
and that he who, on the contrary, falls into one-sidedness, must 
become merely a clever plodder, or a charlatan. He will per- 
ceive that the arts and sciences are as intimately connected, as 
the capacity for the true, the good, and the beautiful is united 
in the spirit of man with the understanding. But is there one 
who has acquired no single perception of all this ; has he only 
crammed into his head the dusty chaff of learning ; has he, in 
the acquisition of this false learning, lost the taste for all that is 
good and beautiful 1 — it had been better that he had never 
entered on this field, which for him has had no result but that 
of drying up his brain with the heat of a confused and unfruitful 
knowledge. 



FUNERAL. 395 

Truly, there are yet other results of student-life than such as 
these : namely, those of a spurious erudition ; results which for 
the quondam student, are yet more sorrowful, and which fill the 
heart of the spectator with pity and abhorrence. We mean the 
consequences which habits of drinking, and of other wild prac- 
tices — such as the miserable passion for play, draw after them. 
It is true that we see many wretched creatures glide trembling 
about, who have laid the first foundations of their aberrations at 
their university. But we see equally many, or more such 
miserables, who never visited such an institution: and if we 
find many sorrowful histories in the university city, of the stu- 
dents who had taken their own lives because they had plunged 
themselves into inextricable debt ; if we hear many a one at the 
end of his academical career lament bitterly over his lost and 
misspent time ; we may be seized with a horror of such places 
as strong, as when we read what Jean Paul has depicted in 
such fearful colours of a similar unfortunate : — " And he brought 
out of the whole rich life nothing but errors, sins and diseases ; 
a wasted body and a weary soul ; a breast full of poison and an 
age full of remorse. His beautiful youthful days now changed 
themselves into spectres, and dragged him back to that sweet 
morning where his father had first placed him, at the point of 
the diverging paths of life, the right hand of which leads into 
the sun-path of virtue, into a wide quiet land, full of light and of 
harvest-fields, and of angels ; and that of the left conducts down 
through the mole-burrowings of crime, into a black cavern full 
of down-dropping poison, of darting snakes, and of a damp and 
sultry vapour. Ah ! the snakes hang on his bosom, and the 
poison drops on his tongue, and — he knew where he was. 
Wild, and with inexpressible hori'or and anguish, he cried to 
heaven — ' Give me my youth again ! O Father ! place me 
again on the diverging path that I may choose differently I' " 

I say, we, and more especially the foreigner, hearing and 
seeing such things, should regard those places with horror. But 
let the latter think, how many young people here are collected 
together ; and that amongst them must of a certainty be many 
very thoughtless, and no few of them decidedly bad characters. 



396 THE STUDENT'S 

Let him recollect that these numbers, who have just escaped 
from the strict bondage of the schools, now suddenly stand free, 
torn loose from all family bonds, to act without restraint, and 
at their own pleasure. Let him reflect that they are in a place 
where opportunities for every species of extravagance are so 
freely offered ; where, if their purses are exhausted, so many 
are at hand ready to lend. Let him again reflect, that the 
student is exposed to all those temptations at an age at which the 
passions rage often with a fearful strength ; at an age which 
causes him to stagger between its extremes. Let him, and let 
us, weigh all this, and then we cannot wonder, if many a one in 
this contest goes down ; if many a one fails to accomplish the 
aim of his ideal activity ; and we shall even rejoice that so 
many honourably pass through the ordeal, and choose the right. 
Goethe's Wahrheit und Dichtung presents us with a passage 
which is particularly applicable to this subject. 

" All men of good disposition feel, in the progress of their 
education, that they have a double part to play in the world — 
an actual and an ideal one, — and in this feeling is to be sought the 
ground of every thing that is noble. What of the actual is 
allotted to us, we find only too clear; what concerns the ideal, 
we can seldom come into a distinct conception of. The man 
may seek his higher destiny on the earth or in heaven, in the 
present or in the future ; but on that account he remains exposed 
to a constant wavering from within, and to a constantly dis- 
tubing influence from without, till he once for all takes the 
resolution to declare that is the right which is conformable to 
his individual condition and character." 

But before we take our leave of those who, as we have said, 
have chosen the right, and now leave the university to enter 
upon a new life, let us cast one sorrowful retrospective glance 
at him, whom death so early has snatched away from his 
brethren. And here it rejoices us to behold how the student 
seeks to honour and preserve the memory of the for-ever de- 
parted. 

When youth, in its strength, in its beauty and freshness, is 
snatched away, and is borne to the grave, who does not feel 
sorrow at heart, even if he were a stranger to the departed? 



FUNERAL. 397 

But in such sorrowful moments we feel a peculiar pleasure in 
mounting higher and higher into a sentiment of grief, till the ex- 
hausted spirit dissolves itself in an infinitude of wo. In the decora- 
tion of the funeral procession with every symbol of sorrow, we 
behold the desire of friends to do the greatest possible honour to 
the deceased in the eyes of the world, and to bring even this to 
participate in the mournful interest. If then this be the intention 
of the last honours, no one has perhaps more completely ac- 
complished the object than the student, when he accompanies 
his departed friend to his last resting-place by night, and with 
the light of torches. 

In the streets a curious multitude has gathered together to 
behold the solemn train, and moves hither and thither. The 
tolUng of the funeral bell, announcing the setting forward of the 
train, has brought us also to the window, and in silence we look 
forth into the yet dark streets. Busy fancy carries us quickly 
far away to the parents of the deceased, who now, in unspeak- 
able grief, bewail perhaps the only son, him whom they hoped 
soon again, after the years of separation, to have folded in their 
arms ; who, so thought they, should now cheer and enliven their 
old age. Then conducts it us to his solitary death-bed, where 
in vain he called on the names of those whom he loved — of 
those who watched his childhood; where sorrowfully he thought 
of their pain ; where, finally, he thanked the friends who, though 
they had been but for a short period united to him in friendship, 
had, through their sympathy and faithful affectionate care, 
softened and made consolatory his last hours. 

An uncertain and ruddy light now plays upon the houses and 
the waving folk's-mass, and the night brings to us the long- 
drawn tones of the trumpets, which, wailing with sorrow, make 
every chord of our inner life vibrate. Now they call back to 
us the dear ones that we have already borne to the grave, and 
the uncertain light of the torches causes their forms to sweep 
before our excited imaginations in a spirit-train. Now these 
thrilling notes seem to lament the transitoriness of all earthly 
things, and to complain of the dreadful ordinations of heaven. 

The scene becomes continually clearer and brighter; the 

34 



398 THE STUDENT'S 

individual torches and their bearers appear distinctly, and be- 
hold ! the mass of people separates before our eyes. To right 
and left they shrink back, as if the multitude feared that ad- 
vancing train would yet snatch another out of this moving 
throng, out of the gladsome drift of life into the chill of the 
grave. 

A numerous band of music comes at the head of the proces- 
sion, lighted by torch-bearers. Then follows the funeral car, 
covered with black cloth and drawn by black horses. Upon 
the car lies the Chore-band, the Chore-caps of the deceased, 
and two crossed swords, all covered with mourning crape, and 
surrounded with mourning wreaths. We remark also particu- 
larly one smaller garland ; it is formed of white roses, and is, 
so we are told, from the sorrowing hand of some unknown fair 
one. 

This car, this coffin, incloses the mortal remains of the 
student whom so lately we saw traversing these streets in the 
freshness of youth, whose strong arm has lifted one of these 
swords in defence of his honour. This city, the witness of his 
fresh and lively existence, will soon have forgotten him. 

Through life's course unto his goal 
With the tempest's speed man driveth ; 

Then within the true friend's soul 
Yet a little while surviveth. 

Vhland. 

Immediately before the car, go two of the beadles carrying- 
fasces wreathed with crape. On each side and behind the 
car, walk the companions of the Chore, all in simple black 
mourning, and with hats. Immediately behind the Chore also 
we see two clergymen in black costume walking. This whole 
group is surrounded by the torch-bearers. Then come all the 
other students who were acquainted w^ith the deceased, and 
who have added themselves to the train. Before them goes the 
leader of the procession, with two attendants or marshals. The 
pecuhar mourning costume — the buckskins and great jack-boots 
— the large storm or two-cocked hat, bordered with black and 



FUNERAL. 399 

white crape, with sweeping feathers — the great leathern gaunt- 
lets — the sword trailing in its sheath — the broad Chore-riband, 
veiled in crape ; all these particulars point him out. His two 
attendants are similarly attired, but without the storm-hat. The 
students then follow two and two, in divisions according to their 
Chores, and others add themselves. In two long lines they ad- 
vance slowly on each side of the street, and from time to time 
we observe an officer marching between these lines, distin- 
guished by his cerevis cap and riband, while he carries in his 
hand his sword, its colours also veiled in crape, and its sheath 
hanging from his left side. These maintain the order of the 
procession. Formerly it was customary for them to be more 
ceremoniously attended, similarly to the leader of the train. In 
the same costume as the leader of the train, however, comes its 
closer, also accompanied by his two attendants ; and these per- 
sonages are chosen by the Chores from amongst their tallest 
members, as a matter of state. 

Thus the procession moves on slowly through the streets, and 
we see a seriousness expressed on the countenances of most of 
the attendants, which the peculiar paleness that the torchlight 
is wont to give, greatly heightens. While the murmur of 
the thoughtless multitude announces to us the termination of 
the train, let us hasten, by a shorter cut than they, to the 
Friedhof, the churchyard where the students are interred. 
Here the train assembles itself around the open grave. The 
clergyman steps into the midst of the silent throng, and having 
pronounced his address, closes it with his last benediction. 
Then steps forward one of the friends of the deceased, to clothe 
in words once more before the assembled crowd, his painful 
feelings. Yet once more calls he to their remembrance the true 
friendship of the departed, his manly worth, and his genuine 
German mind. Yet once more he dwells on all that they have 
lost in him. A few stanzas are sung, from the beautiful hymn 
" From High Olympus," which he had so often joined them in. 
And now the coffin must descend ; and all press forward to 
discharge to him their last duty, by throwing each a handful of 
earth upon him. Lastly, the lowered swords are crossed over 



400 THE STUDENT'S 

his grave, and their clash is the signal for the return of the 
train. 

We perceive in many of these funeral ceremonies a similarity 
to those with which the deceased soldier is interred ; and this is 
still more strikingly shown in the manner in which they return 
to one of the larger squares, there to burn the torches — a man- 
ner which we can by no means approve. 

No longer solemnly and silently tread back the throng ; but 
instead of mourning airs, we hear the march, nay, even the 
merry waltz and the gallopade. Arrived in one of the larger 
squares, the train march round it, and turning towards the 
centre, at a given signal, let their torches fly up into the air, 
and fall on a heap in the midst. They whirl up, describing 
many a fiery circle and convolution ere they reach the flaming 
pile ; and now, while this one animated and huge torch lights 
up all around with a strong radiance, and the dark and giant 
clouds of smoke, which rolling up, mixed with the many-co- 
loured flames, spread themselves to the heavens, the voices of 
the assembled students join in chorus the music-accompanied 
song of 

Gaudeamus igitur, 
Juvenes dum sumus. 

And we see how speedily youth can step from one feeling to 
another. We see also the thought — " Though an individual 
falls, the great whole yet continues ; it was for that, that he 
laboured, and his exertions have not been in vain ;" we see this 
thought expressed in — 

It shall live ! the Academical Freedom ! 

which bursts forth from a thousand voices, amid the clashing 
together of the swords. 

Finally, the torch-pile having nearly consumed itself in its 
splendid light, is extinguished — an image of the high-aspiring 
youth who has been borne to the grave ; and — 



FUNERAL. 401 

As nothing had occurred now all is silent ; 
The bells have pealed out, the songs are ended. 

Uhland. 

We have deferred the description of a torch-train, which is, 
on solemn or festive occasions, conducted in honour of a pro- 
fessor, etc., to this chapter ; and it is only necessary here to 
remark, that on these occasions, the mourning attributes and 
contingencies of course being absent, the general arrangement 
and proceeding is the same. 

Only such students who have distinguished themselves in a 
Chore, and are on that account well known to the whole student 
body, are buried with the honour of a torch-train. Others are 
interred in the day, and the attendants follow either on foot or 
in mourning coaches. The permission for a torch-train must 
always be obtained from the Academical Senate. 

The students in like manner join themselves to the funeral 
train of a teacher of the university, with the rest of the mem- 
bers of the High-school, as well as other mourners. If it be 
that of a professor little known or little esteemed, only those of 
his own faculty attend ; but if it be the funeral of a man distin- 
guished for his eminent talents as a teacher, for the excellence 
of his character, and for his services to the university, they 
scarcely omit one of their number. 



34* 



CHAPTER XXIII. 



THE COMITAT. 



But we have hitherto only turned our attention to the images 
of death ; let us now accompany the more happy youth who 
sails out of the joyful Burschen world into PhiHsterium, on his 
progress. During the student period, the academician gene- 
rally far separated from his connexions, sometimes pays them 
a visit in the vacation. 

And when again he visits us ! — O God ! my wish is won ! 
I see him with his black mustache the real Muses' son ! 
" The Ferien* now ended — I must away — adieu ! 
And now until I've finished, I come no more to you." 

If the student always so lived as during the whole last year 
or half-year of his university-life, we might have been spared 
the labour of writing the tenth and other chapters of our 
volume. There he sits now, in his solitary little room. In- 
stead of frolicksome brothers, the old folios surround him ; he 
has even forgot the Commersing, and instead of that he sips 
his cup of coffee, in order again to revive the exhausted spirit 
of his life. His duelling wrath is directed against the flies that 
disturb him in his studies, and his pipe is the only friend that 
cheers his spirit in his solitude. 

Students who have lived jovially, are accustomed to denote 

* Holidays — the vacation. 



THE COMITAT. 4O3 

that they have arrived at this melancholy termination of their 
campaign by exchanging the cap for the Philistine hat, and 
their cronies are reasonable enough then to perceive, that no- 
body may disturb them in these their arduous exertions, as, 
indeed, the Burschen-life cannot last for ever. After these 
glorious exertions, the son of the Muses plunges boldly into the 
doctoral examination. This is partly made in writing, partly 
orally, and is conducted under the superintendence of the 
Dean, who also selects the questions, to which the youth under 
examination, isolated in a room of the Dean's house, gives his 
answers. The examination is seldom closed under a week ; 
after which he receives, as its result, from the examining pro- 
fessors of the faculty, one of the usual degrees of the university, 
unless his acquirements have been so indifferent, that his evil- 
star, as the students say, has caused him to fall through. 

The usual degrees are these four — " Summa cum laude ;" 
"Prseclara cum laude;" " Insigni cum laude;" " Magno cum 
laude ;" (feliciter evasit, as the student jocosely says.) In most 
states the doctoral examination precedes the state examination,, 
and the examinee acquires the right to be admitted to the latter 
when he has passed his doctoral examination, and has written, 
a dissertation. In other states, as in Baden, the reverse is the; 
fact. 

Is the new doctor then dubbed ? — he has sworn his oath on 
the fasces, and he hastens to announce this new distinction to 
his delighted connexions, and to apprise them of his speedy- 
return home. 



See ! Father, see ! a letter ! his student days are done, 
A Doctor they've created, with high applause, thy son. 
By the next post, so writes he, to-morrow e'en to dine ! 
He comes — " Then, mother, fetch thou thy last flask of good wine." 

Chamisso. 



When now the quondam Bursch returns home, in order then^ 
to prepare himself to pass the State's examination, the portal of 
Philisterium, his university companions accompany him in pror- 



404 THE COMITAT; OR, 

cession out of the city. This accompaniment they call the 
Comitat. 



What rings and sings in the street out there 1 
Open the windows, ye maids so fair. 
'Tis the Bursche, away he wendeth — 
The Comitat him attendeth. 

Uhland. 



Such a comitat was, in former times, more stately and 
striking than at present. Before rode in KoUar and Kanonen, 
that is, in buckskins and jack-boots, the assembled Chore- 
brothers, wearing the Chore-caps and bands, in their right 
hands their drawn swords. Then followed in a carriage with 
four or six horses, the senior in the fullest gala dress, and wear- 
ing the storm-hat, and holding two crossed swords. Then fol- 
lowed in a carriage drawn by the same number of horses, the 
Departing Bursch. He sate on the left side in the old Burschen 
dress, with the old cap on, while on his right hand sate two 
Foxes, dressed in the highest gala uniform, who were attending 
on him with the greatest assiduity, performing every possible 
service for him, especially in lighting his pipe for him. On 
each side of the carriage was generally wont a student also to 
ride. The rest of the students who joined the procession, now 
followed in two-horse carriages, and the Pawk-doctor did not 
fail to appear in the train. The train-closer came last, in the 
style in which we have before described him, either on horse- 
back with his drawn sword, or in a carriage holding the 
crossed swords. So moved on the picturesque procession. to 
the next place, where they once more assembled themselves to 
enjoy the Burschen-life. Finally, the Mossy Bursch must say 
a last farewell to the university city ; finally, must he tear him- 
self from the arms of his companions, and hasten towards his 
home. He carries with him out of the city of the Muses many 
a dehghtful remembrance, and brings to his parents and rela- 
tions, to whose arms he returns, as the testimony of his scientific 
acquirements, the diploma of Doctor. 



ACCOMPANIMENT. , 405 



THE OLD BURSCH. 



Think'st thou thereon how in the Burschen season, 
So light and free, life unto thee did show"! 
Think'st thou thereon — how, and with fullest reason, 
Lovely it seemed to feel young friendship's glow 1 
Rememb'rest thou, what glad throngs thou didst see soon 
As Brothers greet thee — true in joy and \vo1 
When near us lies nor foul deceit could won 1 — 
Speak, Ancient House ! oh ! think'st thou yet thereon 1 

Remeraberest thou, the good old time and tide then, 

In German coat, long hair, and open breast ; 

Heft under arm,* the rapier by the side then, 

With zeal and courage we in college pressed, 

And fought our way all through the deep-and-wide fen, 

Of the most learned lecturer's wild-goose quest 

Then by conceit nor rank imposed upon 1 — 

Speak, Ancient House, — oh ! think'st thou yet thereon 1 

Thinkest thou yet how the Philistines feared, 

Yet still gave credit when the Bursche came ; 

To the Prorector when with plaints they fared, 

The Landsmannschaft did straight the Bann proclaim 1 

Thinkest thou yet how boldly then we dared 

With lovely maids, who still, so mild, so tame — 

How in Commers to heaven we have gone — 

Speak, Ancient House ! oh ! think'st thou yet thereon 1 

Rememberest thou each tragi-comic action — 
How we did fight, since I had thee touchirt 1 
But when the bleeding wound gave satisfaction, 
How heartier than ever we smollirt 1 

* College portfolio, which the student is continually carrying about under his 
arm. With the exception of the sword, this is one of the most striking descrip- 
tions of a student of the present day imaginable. 



406 THE COMITAT ; OR, ACCOMPANIMENT. 

And how we then, both true unto our paction, 
In Career two long moons each other cheered 1 
In Career even clinked glasses, — cared for none 1 
Speak, Ancient House ! oh ! think'st thou yet thereon 1 

I think thereon ! oh ! ne'er shall I forget it ! 
The good, the dear, the ancient Burschentide ! 
Oh ! that 'tis gone ! that heaven such brief term set it! 
East, west, the brothers scattered on each side ! 
And villany ! since then I oft have met it ! 
Yes, life disgusts me — all so cold and wide ! 
Courage, Old House ! sing " Gaudeamus" on ! 
Canst " thou" it yet 1 Ah ! God ! I think thereon ! 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



SUMMARY OF THE ACTUAL MERITS AND DEMERITS OF STUDENT LIFE. 

Prove all things ; and hold fast that which is good. 

The life and habits of the student are closed with the last 
chapter. We have accompanied him from the time when he 
advanced from the school into the free atmosphere of the 
university, till that in which, turning his back on the joyful 
Burschen-world, he sailed forth into the Philisterium. The 
English reader has attended us on a progress through a strange 
country, which lay so near him, and yet was so enigmatical to 
him ; and we hope that his trouble has not proved irksome to 
him. It is true that the Student-life has its rough and eccentric 
side ; and this, as falling most prominently under the eye, has 
not escaped the foreigner. On the other hand, many have 
endeavoured, in their writings, to represent these in the most 
exaggerated manner. But the Student-life has also a beautiful 
and a poetical side, and this many do not think worthy of their 
time and attention, while others have no sentiment for it, and 
therefore no perception of it. When, moreover, in English 
periodicals are exhibited such caricatures and calumnious por- 
traitures as genuine delineations of what would be, truly, very 
singular proceedings and persons ; if the reader has carried 
away with him these as true, because they have been written 
in Germany and with an air of authority, we need not wonder 



408 MERITS AND DEMERITS 

that he turns from these monstrous and bizarre pictures with 
shuddering and contempt, and if he laugh at the folly and 
reprobate the immorality of the German youth. But after we 
have sketched the true features of German Student-life, we 
leave it to the reader to make his reflections upon it, and to 
extract the grains of wheat from the chafl^. 

There remain for us, however, still several questions which 
the more particularly demand answers, because hereupon the 
most singular notions prevail. What gains the student by this 
academical life? What does he carry with him out of it? 
and what does he leave behind in it? and what becomes of him 
next? 

When we have decided upon the advantage which the student 
derives from the academical life, we shall then feel ourselves 
prompted to say a few words upon the tendency of certain in- 
stitutions of the German universities ; on the scientific and moral 
spirit which prevails amongst the students. We shall further 
proceed a little to explain some singular-seeming customs and 
practices, and, so far as these are concerned, as we always 
speak particularly of Heidelberg, to cast some glances of com- 
parison upon other German and foreign universities. In such 
a parallel it is also interesting to observe how the universities, 
as institutions of education, operate thus essentially on the poli- 
tical relations of states, and on the other hand, how they are 
determined in their developement by these. These proposed 
points are difficult ; and their thorough discussion would lead 
us too far. We must therefore content ourselves with distinc- 
tive indications. 

Justly says Thiersch — " The universities are a vastly inter- 
twined and entangled whole, at which people and ages have 
laboured, in order to bring it to its present extension." 

The first and only true object of the academician is, and for 
ever remains, the study of science. This constitutes the central 
point, which all intently seek, and where all find themselves, 
without regard to external circumstances. Knowledge, and 
the strife after it, are sacred to the student ; and these are the 
anchor, which, dropped into the heart of every one, has lashed 



OF STUDENT LIFE. 



409 



to it that internal spiritual bond which embraces the whole 
class. The single aim of the academician is the free pursuit of 
knowledge. 

It is true that the majority of those who seek the university, 
have the object, at a later period, of entering on state offices ; 
and the acquisition of knowledge made at the university, places 
them in a condition to be able properly to discharge the duties 
of those offices, which are the means of their future existence. 
But the later practical application of this knowledge, which is 
so far the medium of his profession, comes before the eye of 
the student in the background. In the society of young people 
who are in the pursuit of knowledge, in the intercourse with 
teachers whose object is the diffiision of the same, and sur- 
rounded by external institutions which all bear upon the ad- 
vancement and the facilitation of study, he remains far from 
the thought that knowledge is to be regarded as a milch-cow, 
which will furnish him hereafter with butter. The unfolding 
of his intellectual capacity in every direction ; the following 
out one or the other in particular, appears to him the business 
of life in these years. It is exactly this which essentially dis- 
tinguishes the corporation of students above every thing else ; — 
of which the student is so proud. He despises the Philistine, 
who, in all circumstances of his life, is only thinking of his 
petty gains. 

It is grounded psychologically on this feeling of individual 
worth as a disciple of wisdom, that the Burschen honour 
springs up, and holds every student equally high and equally 
dear. As a corporation, one stands for all, and all for one ; 
and without drawing a moral death upon it, this honour cannot 
suffer itself to be wounded. Study is pursued at the German 
universities with zeal and radicality. Proofs of this, are the 
great numbers of young men who every year pass through the 
State's-examinations, and testify their ability in all the offices 
of their country : proofs are, the writers of Germany, who owe 
their accomplishment to these institutions : proofs, finally, are, 
the preponderating number of well-educated men compared 

35 



410 MERITS AND DEMERITS 

with those of other countries , who draw" their support from the 
academical foundations. But w'e must not go so far. Let any 
one compare the German student, whose acquirements are 
weighed by a competent judge, with the student of any foreign 
university. 

Manifold indeed have been the complaints of the laziness of 
the first period of the academical life; and we can only repeat 
what we have said on this subject in an earlier portion of our 
volume. There is an abrupt transition from the studies of the 
Gymnasium to those of the University ; and the newling at the 
university wastes and wears away much time, especially in the 
first months, and indeed during the whole first semester, before 
he has accustomed himself to the free condition, and the free and 
fresh atmosphere of the university. But is this of such mighty 
importance? It is the transition into a state of greater self- 
dependence which demands this sacrifice ; and he only who has 
no conception of the strengthening and fortifying influence of 
university life, — he who does not perceive with what higher 
advantage this material loss is counterbalanced, can alone break 
out into lamentations on this head. He who is accustomed to 
chase youth out of one pen into another, and to begrudge every 
free breath, every lighter moment, every refreshment of over- 
passing Muse — who trembles and shakes lest by such trivial 
circumstances they should have lost both body and soul; will 
indeed judge otherwise, but deserves, in fact, to be sent back 
into the school of literary and pedagogic necessity, out of which 
he was expelled by some mischance. That portion of the youth 
however, who have arrived on the threshold of the university 
honest and well-disposed — and this portion is so predominant 
that the remainder appears in comparison insignificant — this 
large and elect portion of the better endowed, soon pass through 
the first rude shock of difficulty and surprise, and through the 
mere pleasure-rambling in the garden of the Muses. The stu- 
dent zealously busied to develope his intellectual constitution, 
healthily and in all its members, will find himself in the strongest 
manner supported by the regulations of the German university ; 
and of these we will speak anon. 



OF STUDENT LIFE. 411 

On the other hand, the free intercourse with his cotempora- 
ries operates nnost favourably. When the youth enters the uni- 
versity, he steps at once into a corporation composed of the 
most opposite materials. Every student brings v/ith him the 
peculiarities of his Fatherland, in manners and speech; and how 
manifold is the variety ! To say nothing of the foreigners who 
frequent our different universities, what a difference is there yet 
between the different races which speak the German tongue. 
What gradations from the cold, ceremonial North German, who 
clings fast to etiquette, and with difficulty attaches himself to 
others, to the good-natured South German, who, knowing little 
of outward forms, readily finds a friend to whom he can ally 
himself. Every foreigner retains the characteristics of his own 
land, and often takes a pride in exhibiting them, by which means 
he becomes a person detached from the mass. We find the 
strongest antagonisms of this kind; and it might make one 
doubtful of the reciprocating influence of this cause, had we not 
found by experience that the result was a favourable one. The 
intellectual bond of knowledge here embraces the sons of all 
nations; and thus these apparently heterogeneous elements can 
only operate auspiciously, since the advantage is not to be over- 
looked which the close and mutual contact affords, of learning 
to know foreign manners and customs, and for each to recog- 
nise his own in the true light. 

And here we must again call attention to the fact, of the 
essential difference between the result of academical life, and 
that of burger life. As to the moral side of the question, there 
have not been wanting people who have laboured to represent 
the university as a gulf which swallows up the flower of the 
youth, as a pool out of which only a few are happy enough to 
escape without ruin of soul and body. These are ridiculous 
and malicious exaggerations. No one will attempt to deny the 
dangers of university life, the temptations to deviations from 
propriety; and according to time and situation must every uni- 
versity, in a greater or less degree, be exposed to these ; but 
every one who is not blinded by excess of prejudice or enmity, 
knows that, besides those who give way to temptation, by far 



412 MERITS AND DEMERITS 

the greater number return to their friends from the High-school, 
as sound in body and mind as they came to it. 

The hope would be idle, to chase evil quite away ; such a 
hope is opposed to the total experience of all people and times, 
to the nature of advancing manhood, and to that degree of free- 
dom, which must be allowed to youth in the years of its grow- 
ing developement for the prosperous completion of this develope- 
ment itself, and which every where, though it may be under 
different forms, will be afforded. There is no law, no precau- 
tion, which can possibly preserve the youngling on the higher 
steps of his career if he does not watch over himself; and one 
cannot forget the just observation of the old English vicar, that 
the virtue that needs continual watching, is not worth the cost 
of a sentinel. But this is the common lot of all manly youth ; 
and we may boldly assert, that aberrations amongst the other 
classes — amongst the younger ranks of the military, of the mer- 
cantile, and of other departments of trade, are not less, but 
probably more extensive ; yes, it is satisfactory to know that in 
these respects the academical life is in a progressive state of 
steady improvement. 

But if we inquire further what are those things which most 
particularly strike the foreigner in the student ; those things 
which are most ridiculous, and disapproved ; we find that, 
briefly, they are the following, — the singular dress of the stu- 
dent, the strong smoking, and his habits of beer-drinking and 
duelling. 

That the student in early times, more than at present, adopted 
a singular costume, arose from two causes, either out of con- 
venience or vanity. In both cases, the matter is a very inno- 
cent one, and the academical boards did wisely to permit him 
these fancies, so far as they were not the signs of an interdicted 
verbindung. The life at the university, as we have had now 
abundant occasion to observe, is a peculiar one. When this 
extends itself so far that a separate court of justice is allowed 
to the students, is it at all to be wondered at, that the Student who 
feels himself in every respect so distinct from the Philistine, 
should also seek to express this distinction by his costume? He 



OF STUDENT LIFE. 413 

only does this so long as he belongs to the High-school, and 
with the conclusion of this period, ceases also naturally, the 
occasion for this peculiarity. Considerations of convenance 
weigh little with the students amongst themselves, — they weigh 
little with them towards those who surround them, as it is by 
no means an object of the student to seek advantage from those 
moving around him, nor to render himself particularly accept- 
able to them. Therefore in small cities these peculiarities of 
dress, chosen according to every individual fancy, strike the eye 
more ; while in larger cities the student, playing a more subor- 
dinate part, unites himself more to the general mass of society, 
and loses himself more in family circles. There he will sur- 
render himself to the existing order and convenances of society, 
since, so soon as he enters the salon, he conducts himself strictly 
by the rules of etiquette. But he is no slave of fashion. This 
is repugnant to liis freedom of thought ; and he believes himself 
to have as good a right to choose his own dress, as the lawgiver 
of fashion has from the capital of France to prescribe what shall 
be held good ton in external appearance. He is by no means 
so tyrannical as that personage, since he desires from no com- 
rade that he shall herein follow his example ; since he leaves 
herein to every one perfect freedom, and allows the native stu- 
dent to observe the stricter ceremonial of his father-city. 

And is his, really as it often is a most fantastic costume, more 
singular or more contrary to nature, than the fashionable attire 
in which many show themselves in the capitals of the whole 
world, and above all, in which they present themselves to the 
eyes of the public in the fashionable watering-places 1 Is he 
indeed the only one who herein overleaps the bounds of etiquette 1 
They who have seen the grotesque paraphernalia in which the 
foreigners from beyond the Channel suffer themselves to appear 
in Germany, will certainly not assert this. And these do this 
in a foreign country ; the student only in his German Father- 
land. Are there so many sects too, who distinguish themselves 
by their peculiar dress, and shall this be so sharply objected to 
in the student? 

The smoking of tobacco is an accusation which the student 

35* 



414 MERITS AND DEMERITS 

shares in common with the other classes of the community, and 
which only looks the more striking in him. We will not defend 
this practice, on which so much has already been said, nor that 
of beer-drinking; but we must again take leave to observe, that 
in all this there is no compulsion. The reader has probably 
alarmed himself by perusing the Beer-code, which we have 
given at the end of this volume. It is well known that in older 
times much more was drunken at the university, and that this 
pernicious custom, especially in some of the German universi- 
ties, prevailed to a most lamentable degree. In those times many 
of these beer-laws might be of great advantage, insomuch that 
they restrained from greater excesses. As they now exist, no 
student is subjected to them, who does not voluntarily submit 
himself to them, by associating himself with the companies that 
assemble at the kneip. And even here it is at his perfect option, 
at any moment, to declare that he will drink no more, only he 
cannot break this declaration without paying the penalty. 

We are as little disposed to defend the duel. A reconciliation 
of disputes between contenders, by the exertion of and through 
the means of reason, either in the disputants themselves, or 
through their friends; or if this were found impracticable, through 
the establishment of a court of honour amongst the students, or 
through an appeal, in serious cases, to the academical court, 
would certainly be a more civilized proceeding. We may, 
indeed, hope that this will be accomplished in time, and the 
more so, because the number of duels at the universities, com- 
pared with former times, is already so much diminished, and as 
the voices of many students are now raised against this prac- 
tice. Yet we must not judge the students too hardly on account 
of the duel, but ought to take into the account the following 
considerations in mitigation of our opinion. 

No one is compelled to fight, who in the commencement de- 
clares that it is contrary to his principles. Let it be recollected, 
that in the university cities, more than elsewhere, young people 
are crowded together, and compelled briskly to push and jostle 
each other, as it were, in their course. Let it be remembered, 
that though we may pronounce of the bulk of them, that they 



OF STUDENT LIFE. 415 

are well-educated youths, yet at the same time, in comparison 
with the circumstances of other young people, it is undeniable 
that far more frequent and greater occasions for antagonist 
attrition occur amongst them — in part, no doubt, on account of 
the greater pecuniary means in their possession, and still more 
on account of the unavoidable necessity of social life amongst 
themselves, especially in the lesser university cities, in which 
they cannot mingle with the family circles. 

The foreign universities, where the duel does not exist, cannot 
be brought in evidence on this head, because they want other 
peculiarities of the German universities, which are of apparently 
great advantage. The constitution of the English universities, 
in particular, is totally different to ours, and more resembles that 
of our seminaries, where the students enjoy no such freedom. 
It must also be remembered that the regulations of our univer- 
sities make them accessible to those without property, and who 
spring out of the lower classes, while in England only the rich 
young men, and those out of the higher classes of society, can 
possibly exist, with a few exceptions, at the great universities of 
England. The advantage of the German universities in this 
respect no one can deny, if he only turns his regard on the great 
number of the most distinguished of the learned men of Germany, 
whose talents have, through this very accessibility of the univer- 
sities, been made beneficial to the public. 

On the other hand, one cannot expect from the student who 
has sprung from one of the lower grades of society, the same 
degree of refinement as graces those of a higher stand. Thus, 
no wonder, if through these who have been accustomed to move 
in a ruder sphere of society, occasions for contentions are more 
readily created. It must be remembered that the student, be he 
who he may, regards himself on an equality with his fellow- 
student ; but on that account so much the more jealously watches 
over his own honour, and on that account also more readily 
believes himself insulted. Hence the customary formula of a 
challenge, " Stupid youth !" which inevitably draws a duel after 
it, is characteristic, as it clearly indicates that the feeling of 
burschen-honour is grounded on the dedication to knowledge, 



416 MERITS AND DEMERITS 

whose disciples can naturally in no way be so insulted as by the 
epithet " stupid," which implies that he is totally unfit for a priest 
of Minerva. 

Let these facile occasions of strife be borne in mind, and then 
let persons of practical experience be asked how many young 
people of other grades are wounded and even killed in scuffles 
and cudgellings, they will then be induced to judge more 
leniently of the duel amongst students, and rather pardon the 
extremes of a feeling of honour, than that the chance should 
possibly arise of a provoked student becoming in effect the 
homicide of his fellows. 

Thus we may regard the duel, under its regular form, as a 
sort of discipline which the students exercise amongst them- 
selves, and thus banish every ruder and not seldom dangerous 
explosion of passion. We say the duel in its regular form, 
and thereupon recall to the reader's memory the following par- 
ticulars. According to the regulations for the arrangement of 
duels in Heidelberg, every challenge must be withdrawn when 
the opponent declares that he gave the insult in a state of 
intoxication. Every duel shall, before it is undertaken, be 
made known to the Senior-Convention, and by it an accom- 
modation shall be attempted. 

When these regulations are violated, this does not arise from 
the regulations themselves, but from the partisans who have 
neglected to demand from the seniors the execution of their 
own laws. The completion of the duel, according to the 
Comment regulations, by sword stroke and not by lunging, and 
with defensive costume, which covers almost every exposed 
part of the body, renders any dangerous consequences almost 
impossible. There is no instance, from time immemorial, of 
any such regularly and formally completed duel in Heidelberg, 
being attended with fatal consequences, or one which rendered 
life thereafter a burden, as is only too frequently the case at 
universities where the duel in every form is punished more 
severely than as a breach of discipline, and where, on that 
account, more dangerous but more easily concealed weapons 
are resorted to. 



OF STUDENT LIFE. 417 

By these observations we would by no means defend duels, 
but merely, in some degree, excuse them. Laws against such 
customs, which are fast rooted in old prejudices, are seldom 
very effectual. As little as the fist-law could by power and at 
once be extirpated, so little, according to our opinion, can this 
be accomplished with the duel. It is true that there hes in the 
hands of the German governments, by means of the State's- 
examination, a power of punishing and suppressing this practice 
which foreign realms do not possess. They might, it may be 
said, pass a law, that whoever had been engaged in a duel, 
should forfeit his right to the State's-examination, and thereby 
state service. But it must be answered, that this would be in 
the highest degree severe for a small offence, which in itselft he 
regular duel really is ; thus, to punish a young man in such a 
manner that this one folly should put an end irrevocably to the 
whole of his life's prospects and career. Further, it has been 
seen, that exactly at those times when the duel of every kind 
was the most strictly interdicted and repressed, the most 
dangerous duels by lunge and shots became more than ever 
frequent. And yet these draw a punishment after them which 
has often made a young man miserable for the remainder of 
his life. So long as it is not the general opinion amongst the 
students, that the duel cannot be held as satisfaction, so long 
will they, in case of actual insult, not be deterred by the most 
stringent punishments from resorting to it. Till then, would it 
not be the most reasonable course to visit the most dangerous 
kinds of duelling with the most severe punishments of the law, 
but to pursue the ordinary and less dangerous not so harshly 1 
If this alone remains to the student, he will by degrees convince 
himself of the ridiculousness of such a sham-fighting, and the 
duel will, as it is already become less piquant, cease altogether. 
It will be the duty of the teacher to promulgate better views 
upon the nature of duelling by speech and by writing, and thus 
to conduct their pupils out of the spirit of it. This the greater 
number of them have even taken suitable opportunities of doing. 
As an example we quote a part of the speech which the Ober- 



418 MERITS AND DEMERITS 

medizinalrath and Professor Dr. J. N. Ringseis delivered on 
the 3d of December, 1828, in the hall of the High-school at 
Munich, at a time when the duel there had become exceedingly 
predominant and reckless. 

" It is a sign of a noble mind to regard true honour as the 
highest good, as higher than life itself. He only who does not 
fear death, really possesses life. We will all strive after higher 
honour; and every one of us must be prepared at any hour to 
sacrifice our life for it. It is a duty through noble manners to 
honour ourselves; he only who maintains a nobility of conduct 
himself, can respect the manners of another. It is honourable 
to belong to a brave union ; more mightily works the spirit of 
every one in union. It is honourable to love your native place, 
be it on the Isar, the Danube, the Rhine, or the Main, since 
what German territory has not a host of glorious recollections? 
It is an honourable, proud feeling to be able to wield the sword 
skilfully, as if it were a member of our body. But he who 
honours himself, his society, his native home, honours this 
feeling in another ; he who recognises the sacred destiny of the 
sword to be the protection of the highest good of mankind, dis- 
honours it not by unholy aims. The officers of our army 
covered themselves with evergreen laurel, — how rare is the 
duel amongst them ! The hero youth of the universities of 
North Germany performed miracles of bravery in the memo- 
rable Liberation war; and the duel was, amongst those who 
returned, almost without example. Rare indeed is it in the 
circles of the highest society ; to the noblest nations of antiquity, 
the Greeks and Romans, it was wholly unknown. 

" I repeat not the thousand-times-reiterated arguments against 
the irrationality of the duel, since I know well that they have 
fought, even excellent men, although convinced of the perversion 
of the practice — have fought, bowing to the lordship of opinion, 
spite of the certainty of losing office, property, freedom, and 
life itself. Truly there belonged to such conduct a kind of 
obstinate bravery; but greater, nobler, more worthy of the 
sight of heaven is the courage which tames itself; the courage 



OF STUDENT LIFE. 419 

of him, who although fearless, although practical in arms, 
although secure from discovery and punishment, yet fights not; 
the hero-courage of a free obedience, which our poet sings : — 

Courage has the Mameluke — obedience is the Christian law. 

" How is it, friends, that we feerourselves too effeminate to 
contend for this loftiest laurel of courage and obedience? Cer- 
tainly the nobler, the more honourable, in every accomplish- 
ment the more advanced, a man, a union, a people, — there for 
ever is and was the more rarely to be found the duel. What, 
then, must be thought of men to whom the duel is become a 
chief business of life? of youths called hereafter to become the 
leaders and the lights of your people 1 How, ye jurists ! ye 
who hereafter will nicely weigh in the balance the right — will 
sharply reprove insolent opposition to the law — and would 
rather suffer shame and death than perpetrate the smallest 
injustice, — will you open the way through audacious contempt 
of the laws? 

" Medical men ! called to wound that they may heal, not to 
destroy, will you commit that double crime against the state? 

" And could a philosopher — a theologist, so grossly deride the 
Divine Teacher's word — 'Do good to those who hate you; 
bless those who curse you ; pray for those who despitefully 
use you ?' 

" And, noble friends ! can true honour prevail, where drinking, 
quarrelling, and insult give the shameful occasions for the duel? 
True honour ! where he who refuses to fight a duel is exposed 
in rude verses in public places, and is even maltreated with 
vulgar violence ? True honour ! where in aggravation of disobe- 
dience, dishonourable lies are also added ? I glow with shame 
to the very depths of my mind, that any amongst us, however 
few in number, could be so mean as to deny the deed, could 
harden themselves shamelessly to make the denial a point of 
honour ! Oh ! hideous spectre of honour, without the courage 
of truth and of obedience! The courage of truth and obedience 
is the highest honour ; and he who binds himself to a union 



420 MERITS AND DEMERITS 

pledged to lies and to disobedience, he has from the beginning 
no conception of honour; unfit for a priest, unfit for a judge, 
unfit for a physician ! 

" O my friends, I see you burn with a noble indignation ; you 
are all on fire for honour, for the highest honour of manhood. 
Up then ! there is a vast, a boundless field of laurels for you, for 
us all, to contend for. Shame to ignorance! shame to immo- 
rality ! shame to the rude might of arms, without knowledge, 
without morals, without obedience ! shame to obedience to- 
wards unions in things which God and the king forbid ! In 
knowledge, in morals, in obedience, in glowing love to King 
and Fatherland — in them let every individual endeavour to 
outstrip another, every union the other, our university all 
others. I call you, my friends, to such a noble contest ; and 
to it call you your honour, the fame of our university, the 
fame of the Fatherland, and of our King!" 

These abuses, which we have just now alluded to, that is, the 
passion for the duel, and the strong drinking, are the causes 
which make the Verbindungs, which are known under the name 
of Landsmannschafts and Chores, odious. In fact, if one puts 
these dark adjuncts out of mind, then the student life, and in 
particular the Chore life, has only a cheerful aspect. The close 
incorporation of students into unions, which have regular meet- 
ings in some particular place, from which every uninvited dis- 
turber of order is banished ; meetings for social entertainment 
and exhilaration ; for practice in bodily exercises, as in fencing 
and gymnastics ; these could only serve to a more speedy ac- 
complishment of active and intellectual men, and would be 
certainly approved of by all reasonable persons. These dark 
adjuncts have brought the Chore life into great unpopularity, 
and have induced many governments to prohibit the Chores 
themselves, as the vehicles which contain and maintain these 
pernicious practices. Yet it must be remembered that practices 
so deeply rooted are not to be expelled by force, but only through 
the advancing march of humane knowledge ; and it must be fur- 
ther acknowledged, that the Chores by the maintainance of 
order in these things themselves, only prevent a greater outburst 



OF STUDENT LIFE. 421 

of the wild Burschen-spirit. The governments have made use 
of the Chores frequently in order to bring the student youth to a 
quicker adoption of resolutions which would be for the good of 
the university, or of the state; and this continues to be the case 
in those states where they are yet allowed. 

Let us imagine the Chores purified from their dross ; they 
would then represent unions which had their own constitutions, 
and where those in reality who distinguished themselves most 
in outer life, would take the first places. Let it not be believed 
that in such a case the proper acknowledgment would be de- 
nied to him who, unincumbered with social life, devoted himself 
exclusively to knowledge. This happens by no means to those 
who belong to the present Chores under their present circum- 
stances. That the student jealously watches over his honour ; 
that he easily imagines this honour affected, grounds itself on 
the equal standing which he gives to every one of his fellow- 
members. He makes this sufficiently obvious himself, in that 
he will not permit the usual duel between the Student and the 
Philistine. We cannot blame this strict vigilance over the 
Burschen honour ; but the means resorted to, to restore wounded 
honour, are truly foolish, and worthy of punishment. If we 
imagine the duel superseded by the sentence of a court of 
honour, which condemned the guilty to beg pardon, or some 
other proportionate punishment, thei'e would be nothing further 
to be desired. 

But the reasons which the government assigned for the pro- 
scription of the Burschenschaft were totally different. They 
were determined to this prohibition by this principle ; that the 
student who is at the High-school in order further to develope 
his intellectual faculties, and to arrive at a scientific and poli- 
tical freedom in his views — that he, the scholar, is not called to 
step forth here already as a teacher of the people ; that he is not 
called upon to overturn the constitutions of states, before he has 
yet learned properly to analyse their nice and elaborate con- 
struction ; since it is a true assertion, that it is much more easy 
to pull down than to build up ; and it was a piece of presump- 
tion in the youth to attempt to hurl down by violence a fabric, 

36 



422 MERITS AND DEMERITS 

which the best and wisest of the people had with their best 
strength erected. 

In Heidelberg, since the Marching-Forth of 1828, the Bursch- 
enschaft, as its especial promoter, was anew strictly proscribed, 
but the Landsmannschafts were sanctioned ; and from each 
new-springing Verbindung the word of honour was taken, by 
the academical board, that it was no Burschenschaft. After 
some years, however, these Landsmannschafts were forbidden 
also. . 

So far as the Burschenschaft was a union which, on account 
of its ideal object, claimed prerogatives beyond the other Ver- 
bindungs, in so far by that prohibition is its return to the High- 
school made impossible. But so far as the Burschenschaft 
spirit is a real constitutional spirit, we may in Heidelberg assert 
with pride, that it never was abandoned by the young burgers 
of our High-school, and that all our present existing Verbin- 
dungs are animated by this same noble feeling. This constitu- 
tional mind has already displayed itself prominently on so many 
occasions, that it is not necessary to bring evidences of it. We 
may simply allude in confirmation, to the interest which the 
students have always manifested in the proceedings of the 
Landtag, and to the testimonies of acknowledgment which 
they have always given to those teachers who have there ex- 
erted themselves for the good of the people, and for the mainte- 
nance of constitutional freedom. We may notice the sympathy 
with the unhappy state of Poland, which the students publicly, 
by word and deed, expressed to the Polish officers who passed 
through the city. Hence, because these unions do not assume 
as their object the preparation for the realization of some cer- 
tain idea, but merely a pleasant social life during the university 
years, it does not follow that the hearts of these young do not 
beat warmly for knowledge, for right and freedom, and that no 
individual amongst them pursues this noble aim, nor does it 
follow that these unions set themselves in opposition to such 
more ideal aims as may already be begun there to be pursued. 

An esteemed German philologist says — " Most of our Ger- 
man universities bear the humane character of fine manners 



OF STUDENT LIFE. 423 

and chivalric bearing. They array themselves in the clear, 
radiating colours of the dreams of youthful pleasure; and is 
there conspicuous, indeed, in the academic life itself, the foam 
of a bubbling fermentation, this clears itself with time, and 
becomes in the end a noble and strong spirit." A finer pane- 
gyric we cannot pronounce ; but we may corroborate it, when 
we add to the observations already made, how much the spirit 
of the young man is stimulated at the university to activity; 
and with what noble energy, which so eminently distinguishes 
the student class, he employs this activity in all directions. As 
there is no rule without its exception, so there is, indeed, such 
here; but we must not lay the measuring-wand of a general 
judgment on these few extravagances, though in the full elu- 
cidation of the subject we may not pass them entirely without 
observation. 

Abroad, people have had such singular notions of the German 
students, that they could not for their lives conceive what could 
be made, in after-life, of such wild fellows ; and have been 
amazingly astonished to hear, that they afterwards became like 
other reasonable people, and administered all sorts of offices of 
the state conscientiously, and with the most exemplary and 
calm discretion. We recollect a passage in the humorous 
work of Mr. Hood, " Up the Rhine ;" at which certainly many 
a German student has already heartily laughed, as he has read 
it there as something new — that " it is notorious that these 
Burschen come in, according to the proverb, as Lions and go out 
as Lambs, — some of the wildest of them settling down in life as 
very civil civilians, sedate burgomasters, and the like." 

Let it never be forgotten that the students represent a peculiar 
class, of which they who compose it, however, are but tempo- 
rary members. Shall the student then carry over with him 
into the Philisterium, his singular attire, and his Chore-colours'? 
It would seem as if foreigners had quite supposed this must be 
so. But we would ask them whether it ever occurs that a 
member of parliament makes a speech in his place in the 
House, arrayed in the student-gown which he wore at Cam- 
bridge? Shall the student, indeed, carry with him his sword, 



424 MERITS AND DEMERITS 

that with eccentric courage he may defend the Burschen ho- 
nour, when he has himself long become a Philistine? Shall the 
quondam student forsake wife and children, in order to go and 
vindicate the injured majesty of studentdom, in order to join 
himself to the Marching-Forth? Could such things be, then 
must the German academies truly be regarded as so many 
great lunatic asylums, and nothing better or wiser could be 
done than to extirpate them, root and branch. 

A few words yet remain to be said on the actual advantage 
derived by the German student from this life, and carried 
forward with him out of the green Burschendom, into the 
seriousness of his later vocation, and on what his after-vocation 
may be. 

The great business of the student, as already stated, is the 
pursuit of science ; and it is less the mass of knowledge here 
harvested, which brings him future advantage, than the capa- 
city which he acquires, let him move in later life in what circle 
he may, of comprehending and acting in a pure scientific and 
philosophical spirit, upon every matter which may be thrown 
into his path. The student-life has many favourable influences 
on the character of a young man. Though the Bursch, as it 
regards his social position, naturally allies himself most closely 
to his landsmen, yet he feels himself compelled by those causes 
already pointed out, to exert a general tolerance towards his 
brethren, which though often abandoned and again submitted 
to, yet inoculates him with a greater degree of sufferance, 
which on his departure from the academical, for a more gene- 
ral life, unfolds itself more freely, and extends itself to all social 
relations. The student, indeed, as such, knows little tolerance 
towards non-students; yet the patience which he learns to exert 
towards his fellow-students, is not without its consequence, and 
wiien he steps out of his confined sphere, it then clothes itself in 
another outward form, and takes a general direction. The 
student maintains strictly and perseveringly his own views, 
though consequently, often erroneous ones ; but this serves in 
after-life, to lay the ground-work of greater steadfastness of 
character. This firmness continues with him to his grave, 



OF STUDENT LIFE. 425 

though his views and principles modify and purify themselves, 
as his growing intelligence directs him more and more into the 
track of truth. And as the student stands upon his honour, for 
which full of the highest enthusiasm he glows, and joyfully 
offers up property and life, so stands he in the bonds of truth 
and friendship. Such bond of friendship is to him sacred as his 
own life, and it is to him continually a guiding-star through the 
gloomy paths of existence. It is to him the noblest treasure 
which he carries with him into the tumult of life, and he con- 
tinues to it inviolably faitliful. 

In addition to this, the student has learned to arrive at the 
poetical side of life. He has continually sought and enjoyed 
pleasure and satisfaction ; and let no man imagine that these 
foretell only a future trifler. No, he is thereby invited to enliven 
the stupidity of every-day life, and to throw new interests 
around the path of existence. That, however, every character, 
according to its own individuality, more or less favourably 
developes itself, and that these influences of student-life here 
described differ in degree in different individuals, needs no 
stating. We seek only to show general causes, and these are 
certain. Scientific merit, self-confidence, consciousness of being 
able to thank his own individual strength for his existence, the 
honour of men, and the truth of friends, — can more beautiful or 
delightful results than these be found 1 Even on the outward 
appearance of the quondam Bursch, the student-life has a 
favourable influence. The moment that the young man has 
entered the Philisterium he adopts the existing convenances, so 
far as appear conducive to his purpose, but only so far as that 
he can yet maintain that independence of fashion which he has 
already asserted. His outward manner of life continues free 
and unrestrained ; and this, united to the practice of making a 
greater tour after his examination has passed, as well with 
scientific as with other objects, gives to the former academician 
a higher bearing, an acquired tact, which adheres to him through 
existence, and again pronounce in their consequences the great- 
est advantages of student-life. 

That the Burschen-life, through the greater freedom which it 

36* 



426 MERITS AND DEMERITS 

enjoys, may also bring great disadvantages to him who has 
abused it, and which may poison later life ; who will attempt to 
deny ? We have already pointed out the rocks and breakers 
of this ocean of transition life. The Burschenschaft agitations 
of a former period also plunged many into misfortune ; but this 
danger is now in a great measure past^ and for the last time 
gleamed up a political tendency for a few moments in the Ver- 
bindung, like glimmering ignis-fatui, in the years 1830-32. 

When the student now quits the university, where he has left 
behind him the follies of youth, and bearing with him a greater 
or less amount of intellectual acquisition, he enters immediately 
on the service of the state. After his State's-examination it is 
very customary to make a tour, before the young man for ever 
knits himself to one abode. Besides those who in practical 
state's-service, or as teachers in the schools and universities, 
work themselves forward, step by step, with more or less speed, 
according to the degree of their abihty and of their diligence, or 
in proportion as they are favoured by fortune, — others exert 
themselves in the wide field of daily literature, zealously labour- 
ing to win the fame of authors and of poets. But follow which- 
ever path he may, let fortune smile on him or not — let him 
crown himself with laurels, or strive for the wreath of glory in 
vain — never will he who has been a genuine Bursch, become a 
Philistine ; that is, in that sense in which the student understands 
it. The words of the celebrated Arndt express most lucidly this 
meaning of the word Philistine. " A Philistine is a lazy, much- 
speaking, more-asking, nothing-daring man; such a one who 
makes the small great, and the great small, because in the great 
he feels his littleness and his insignificance. Great passions, 
great enjoyments, great dangers, great virtues, — all these the 
Philistine styles nonsense and frenzy. He will rather have life 
in the pocket edition than in the folio, so that it can but be 
carried through with the very least possible acting, thinking, and 
daring. Rest, and rest again, and at any rate ; a state of lazi- 
ness, that he loves, that he desires, that he preaches up, and for 
that he cries to heaven and earth, if there is any chance of his 
being disturbed in it," 



OF STUDENT LIFE. 427 

Into these faults he will never fall, who has once imbibed the 
principles of a German university ; and will only in so far be- 
long to the Philistines, as the student in a wider sense terms 
every one a Philistine who no longer belongs to the Burschen. 

What we have now been saying may convince us how bene- 
ficial is the influence of the student-life on that which follows. 
Nobler principles of action awake in the breast of the academi- 
cian, and are nourished ; that here and there starts up amongst 
them something perverse, is not denied ; but the kernel is good, it 
germinates, it grows into a tree, and bears excellent fruit, which 
the quondam Bursch and his cotemporaries are destined to 
enjoy. 



CHAPTER XXV. 



A REVIEW OF THE POLITICAL ASPECT OF STUDENT LIFE. 

If we have hitherto regarded the life and pursuits of the 
university in an isolated nianner, and entirely on its own ac- 
count, -yet it can by no means have escaped the reader that this 
life does not stand so completely sundered from the general 
stream of events, but that the mind and spirit of the university 
life is determined by the spirit of the times, and that, on the 
other hand, it operates again powerfully on the developement of 
the institutions and condition of the times. This must have be- 
come sufficiently clear to us in noticing the earlier Burschen- 
schaft, and to increase and complete that conviction, we have 
only to take a hasty review of what has been now written, and 
to add a few other remarks. 

The universities reflect the spirit of the times : its progress, 
its weakness, its strength, are all imaged forth again in the 
science of the age ; and the schools are therefore exposed to the 
changes and revolutions of the times, but are not unconditionally 
subjected to them. They have strengthened that spirit of the 
time and of the people in their exhaustion, by their inquiries and 
results ; and not less through teaching and the invisible power 
with which they have elevated and ennobled the minds of the 
youth. They have enriched the sciences, and adorned public 
affairs with beauty and wisdom. They have in part laid the 
foundations of the intellectual greatness and high accomplish- 
ment of Germany ; in part strengthened and guaranteed them ; 



POLITICAL ASPECT OF STUDENT LIFE. 429 

and are the pillars of the fairest and most unrivalled glory 
which our country in the most recent times, and before the 
eyes of all Europe, has achieved. The university is the central 
point and the heart of science. From all sides stream to it the 
spirits which are athirst for knowledge ; and as they are en- 
nobled, again from that central point disperse themselves through 
all the members of Germany, diffusing through them fresh nou- 
rishment and a splendid growth. The teachers and accomplish- 
ers of the people go forth out of them. The battles of the 
church were fought out in the university; and if, as it happened 
in the contest of the Reformation, the faith of the Princess was 
forced upon the High-school by the hand of power, yet the 
teachers and scholars of the university seldom bowed before it. 
The teachers abandoned a place, which would lay their con- 
sciences in chains, and sacrificing office and income, sought an 
asylum in foreign lands. They often found a refuge in another 
university which held the same faith as themselves; they carried 
with them the troop of their scholars, who, as their faithful body- 
guard, attended them ; and there fought ancu' and victoriously 
for the success of the good cause. 

The Professors of the High-schools have pre-eminently co- 
operated in working out the constitution of the German States, 
and many excellent men amongst them have contended for the 
freedom of the people, and have boldly stood forward against 
every usurpation of despotism. We need only give one example, 
and that of the most recent date ; we need only call to the 
reader's mind the Seven Professors of Gottengen, who opposed 
themselves to the arbitrary violation of the constitution of the 
state with all their power, and on that account in the most un- 
principled manner were ejected from their professorships. This 
scandalous, and in Germany till then, unheard-of example of 
despotism, notoriously threatened the destruction of the Georgia- 
Augusta, and for a long time annihilated its prosperity ; but 
other states, by their reception and establishment of these profes- 
sors, have shown that they approved of their proceeding, and 
the exiled professors were every where received by the German 
students with the testimonies of the deepest veneration. If the 



430 POLITICAL ASPECT 

Bundestag did not condemn the King of Hanover as guilty, yet 
the judgments are well known, which many German universi- 
ties at its desire gave in, and in which they expressed in the 
most strong and unqualified language their sense of the injustice 
of the deed. We call to mind that the tyrant called on the 
King of Wirtemberg to punish the audacity of the professors of 
Tiibingen who had sent in such a judgment, according to the 
enormity of their crime, — an audacity which in Hanover would 
be expiated in chains ; but the noble monarch answered that in 
his land the freedom of teaching was a sacred possession, which 
he would never infringe ; but, for the rest, he observed sarcasti- 
cally, he left it to the High Court of Justice at Celle to pro- 
nounce sentence on the guilt or innocence of his faithful pro- 
fessors. 

If the universities in such a manner grapple mightily with the 
circumstances of the times, so are they, on the other hand, influ- 
enced by them. They receive from the times the impressions, 
the tendency, the frivolity as well as the earnestness, and dis- 
tinguish themselves only from the other circles of society in 
this, that in them the good and the evil of the times more 
rapidly unfold themselves and take a determinate form. The 
moral effeminacy of the nation at the time of the French domi- 
nation, operated on the ignoble natures amongst the youth, 
scattering and dissolving ; while it spurred on the nobler to 
those Verbindungs out of which, at a later period, went forth 
hosts to do battle for the liberation of the nation from a foreign 
yoke. After the rising of the nation and its consequence — 
victory over the foe, — as all hearts felt themselves elevated, all 
exertions felt themselves refined, the new form of the time stood 
forth in the yet pure aims of the Burschenschaft, which at the 
time when the Tugend-bund extended itself, constituted, on its 
first appearance, a continuation of the brotherhood-in-arms, the 
Waffengenossenschaft, which with the student youth returning 
from the war, had this object, — to purify academical life from 
its dross, and to present it as an image of the union and enno- 
bling of all the German races. Hereupon followed the period of 
undeceiving, of counteraction, of degeneracy, which run into so 



OF STUDENT LIFE. 43 j 

unrestrained a career, that to the wise and prudent, the beauti- 
ful time of enthusiasm, appeared as the dream and frenzy of 
good-natured fools. As the youth would not abandon the 
objects of their endeavours, whether rational or chimerical, 
but, on the contrary, held them equally fast as something great 
and noble, a portion of them fell a secure prey to the unquiet, 
the revolutionists and political intriguers, who abused their inex- 
perience, and poisoned their noble endeavours by infusing a 
resistance to public order. The teachers of the universities 
were blamed by many, as though they were chargeable with 
being concerned in these aberrations of the youth, or, at least, 
were so far culpable that they had not prevented them. 

So far as a direct participation of the teachers in these 
political disturbances is concerned, we may be well assured 
that, if only a single professor had at any time been an accom- 
plice, or indeed only a concealer and protector, of the guilty, 
the exact, the strict, and in many places for years protracted 
inquiries, w^ould to a certainty have come upon the trace of 
their crimes, and the guilty would have been conducted from 
the professorial chair to the dungeon. There remains only the 
question, whether they, though taking no part in the views and 
proceedings of the young people, were yet aware of them, and 
took no steps to prevent them. But were the youths who fell 
under the power of the law, the only ones who trod the same 
dangerous path 1 Were there not amongst the others, some, 
perhaps even as many, who, through the warnings and exhorta- 
tions, or through the moral influence of distinguished teachers; 
and, in short, liirough the better spirit which every well con- 
ducted university developes amongst the nobler part of the 
youth, were preserved from that mischief? But, so far as the 
actually implicated students were concerned, the professors 
were in the same case with the Boards, expressly organized for 
the watching over the youth, and the matter was quite unknown 
to them, since the youths who were mutually pledged to that 
object, concealed it from the eyes of the professors just as 
scrupulously as from those of the university Commission of 
inquiry, and the Boards of police. But to the liberation of Ger- 



432 POLITICAL ASPECT 

many from the dominion of Napoleon, the High-schools con- 
tributed no little. Joyfully their scholars gave themselves up to 
death, and scholars and teachers roused the nations to bravery 
through inspiriting songs ; of which the names of Arndt, Schen- 
kendorf, Korner, Hauff, FoUen, Voss, Stolberg, Scharnhorst, 
and Haupt, stand as glorious testimonies. 

Yet once more the youth wandered from their laudable endea- 
vours in the years 1830-33, and one portion of them although a 
small one, suffered themselves to become the work-tools of poli- 
tical fanaticism. The revolution in Poland, and the unhappy 
fate of that country, had made a vivid impression on their minds. 
Demagogic agitators again were busy in secret ; private Ver- 
bindungs were formed ; the catastrophe of the French Revolu- 
tion of July occurred, and flung the firebrand into the powder 
magazine. People thought they must follow the example of 
France, and began loudly, with writing and by speech, to attack 
the governments and to abuse the princes. But the youth who 
attached themselves to these agitators, were no longer the 
old Burschenschaft, who steadfast to their one idea, — " One 
Fatherland, which should declare itself the worthy antagonist 
of the arch-enemy France ; one church, and freedom," fought 
out this with word and deed : no, the modern Burschenschaft, 
an abused work-tool of a greater party, had sworn death to the 
hereditary princes, and did not shrink, as a means of achieving 
such an object, to offer the hand even to the old enemy, to 
France itself. They would dare the highest extremes ; and, 
allured by the apparent quietness of the government, the assem- 
bly at Hambach, which has become so widely celebrated, was 
held in 1833, where the French colours, and the tri-colour of 
the Burschenschaft, fluttered from the same staff. There, death 
to the princes was sworn, and within a short time revolutionary 
movements broke out in all parts of Germany. A number of 
the academic youth plunged themselves into misfortune through 
the attempt at Frankfort, since the governments now found it 
necessary to exercise stringent measures with all their power, 
and all partisans of such demagogue Verbindungs were quickly 
either arrested, or, having been timely warned, fled. 



OF STUDENT LIFE. 433 

It may well be supposed that from this time forward, a much 
stricter eye was kept upon every sort of Verbindung of the stu- 
dents. No Landsmannschaft dare lift its head, and the aca- 
demical liberty was in many particulars restricted. Another 
injurious effect also became apparent. Many states, more par- 
ticularly Prussia and Russia, forbade their subjects to frequent 
any but their own universities, and no university felt the loss 
occasioned by this order more than Heidelberg, where the 
attendance of Prussian subjects has only again been recently 
permitted. 

Yet, after all, only a small portion of the student youth, suf- 
fered themselves to be carried away by these imprudences ; and 
what might be the reacting effect of these lamentable occur- 
rences, the reflection of the students on themselves and on their 
calling, on what became them and was for their real advantage, 
further strengthened and quickened by the seriousness with 
which the governments pursued the guilty, produced in them 
a greater exactness, and gave thereby a higher moral firmness 
to the academical life, so that far from being represented as a 
sink of wickedness, as some people believe it, it may much 
more justly be regarded now as a fruitful, purified, well-drained, 
and well-sown field. The channels, constructed to lay dry the 
boggy places, are cleared ; the unsound spots are probed and 
•made good ; and if the watchful superintendence of circumspect 
and well-disposed Boards, and the professional faithfulness of 
the majority of the academical teachers continue what they 
are, this corn-field of our future will yet bear continually more 
beautiful and affluent harvests. 



37 



CHAPTER XXVI. 



A PARTING GLANCE AT OTHER UNIVERSITIES : 
GERMAN AND FOREIGN. 

We have in conclusion, only to say a few words of com- 
parison between the university of Heidelberg and the other 
German universities ; and between these generally and those of 
other countries. 

In the description of a German university, we have always 
had that of Heidelberg in our eye, touching only occasionally 
one or another of the other German universities. The insti- 
tutions of these are essentially alike, yet each one has its own 
pecuHarities; and this is not to be wondered at, when one 
reflects how many influences determine the course of the de- 
velopement of a High-school. It shapes itself on the circum- 
stances of the times, according to the will of the Princes under 
whose protection it stands; according to surrounding causes, in 
respect to nature and art ; and more than all, according to the 
spirit and character of the teachers. To take a comparative 
review of these peculiarities of the other universities of Germany 
would be highly interesting ; but when we reflect that in such 
a course all alleged influences must be carefully weighed ; and, 
in fact, that not merely the present but all the past fortunes of 
the High-schools must be brought under the eye, it will at once 
be seen that so wide a scope of observation does not belong to 
this work. We can as little go into the narrative of the foreign 
universities ; because personal inspection is wanting to us, and 



A PARTING GLANCE, ETC. 435 

because we can give little faith to the statements of foreigners 
— statements which often contradict each other, and for the 
most part are as little worthy of credence, as those fabulous 
accounts of German universities which have been circulated 
abroad. The last few years have brought us intelligence of the 
English universities, which represents them as the nurseries of 
all that is mischievous and corrupt, and which paints them in 
colours as repellant as, at the same time, have been daubed 
over the caricatures of German universities there. The false 
representations which foreigners, who, in fact, have lived for 
some years at a German High-school, have made of the dili- 
gence and moral condition of the same, warn us not to pro- 
nounce a similar opinion on academical institutions which we 
have not seen with our own eyes. We will only here devote a 
few lines to some advantages which our institutions appear to 
us to possess over those of England. 

The great wheel of the mechanism of a German university 
is, next to the payment for the lectures, the division of the 
teachers into ordinary and extraordinary professors, and private 
teachers. Through the income appointed by the government, 
the professor is not dependent on his hearers, and is not tempted 
to care more for his income than for science. The first duty of 
a professor is towards science ; not towards the students. That 
is the principle of all genuine university professors ; and in this 
exactly differs the university essentially from the Gymnasium. 
The state must secure a moderate income to the professor, 
independent of the number of his hearers ; since a lecture 
which has only seven or eight attendants may be of incalculable 
benefit to science ; as for instance, those on the higher analysis, 
or the higher philology. A great mathematician ought not, in 
order to acquire emolument merely, waste his time in teaching 
the inferior branches of his science. But on the other hand, 
the state is not bound to give to every individual a scientific 
education gratuitously, and to its own ruin ; and it would be 
unjust to extract money from the pockets of all citizens for the 
benefit of only a very small number. A suitable and secure 
income, which furnishes a professor with what is necessary and 



436 A PARTING GLANCE 

with leisure; and paid lectures, which in proportion to his success 
shall better his condition, — these, in this respect, constitute the 
true means ; since a professor should never forget the higher 
interests of science, nor in the brilliant lustre of a transcendent 
genius content himself with only a certain degree of success, 
and only a moderate number of hearers. There is also this 
advantage to be added, that the students frequent with more 
zeal and perseverance the lectures for which they pay. 

What happens in these respects in France is exactly the con- 
trary. In the French faculties of language and science, the 
doors are thrown open, and every man can enter without paying. 
This at the first view appears excellent, and worthy of a great 
nation. But what is really the consequence 1 That an audience 
is like the pit of a theatre ; one goes in, and then goes out again, 
in the midst of the lecture ; another comes once, and then comes 
no more if the professor does not tickle his ear. The attendants 
listen with distracted attention, and in general you see more 
amateurs than students. The professor who does not lose a 
sous, let him do his work as ill as possible, either neglects it, and 
expends little trouble or talent on his lectures, or loving fame, 
anxious for his reputation, and yet despairing to win a serious 
audience, labours at least to assemble a numerous one. In this 
case there is an end to science ; for in order to make it attrac- 
tive, he must sink himself to the level of his hearers. 

There lies in this great number of attendants an almost mag- 
netic influence, which bows to its yoke even the strongest minds; 
and he who would be an earnest and admirable professor for 
attentive students, becomes for frivolous, airy, and superficial 
hearers, light and superficial himself. In fine, what remains to 
the multitude of that instruction to which they have given a gra- 
tuitous attendance? — a confused impression, just about as profit- 
able as that which an interesting drama in the theatre would 
have left behind. 

But is this to be compared for a moment with the persevering 
zeal of fifty or a hundred heai'ers even, who have paid before- 
hand for the lectures; who follow their progression obstinately, 
in order to sift them, and to give themselves an account of them. 



AT OTHER UNIVERSITIES. 437 

without which they have tlirown away both their time and 
money. Thus excellent is the arrangement that the student 
shall pay something, and at the same time the state shall gua- 
rantee to the distinguished and learned men who are chosen as 
professors, a secure and fitting support. 

The three degrees of teachers at the High-schools of Ger- 
many are in the happiest manner divided from each other, and 
yet bound together. The foundation, the root of the professor- 
ship, the inexhaustible and everspringing nursery of the German 
university, are the young doctors, to whom it is allowed, under 
certain conditions, and with the permission of the faculties, to 
deliver public lectures. Every able young man may thus 
arrive at the higher offices of teaching, but none without 
raising, at least good expectations. He is tried, but without 
entering into any actual engagement with him ; without any 
thing being promised to him, or given him. If he does not by 
•correspondent results, realize the hopes which have been enter- 
tained of him ; if he fails to attract hearers, and to do honour to 
the faculty which admitted him ; it is seen that a vain anticipa- 
tion has been attached to him, and he is not raised to the rank 
of extraordinary professor. He himself, after some years, with- 
draws himself from the hopeless pursuit, which brings him few 
hearers and little profit, and betakes himself to some other 
career. On the contrary, if he fulfil the hopes raised by him ; 
if he gather numerous hearers, and write works which excite 
attention; he is then declared Extraordinary professor, a title 
which is irrevocable, and which gives him a small fixed salary, 
which, with the income derived from his hearers, encourages 
him, and supports him in his career. If he maintain this happy 
progress, if he prove himself an able man, the state, in order to 
retain him, increases by degrees his income, and finally names 
him Ordinary professor. 

This distinguished title is never given on account of hopes 
which may be found false by experience, but on account of tried 
effects, of distinguished talents, and established reputation. It is 
very rare that this title is received before a certain age; and 
there is not a professor in Germany, who is not a man of a 

37* 



438 A PARTING GLANCE 

reputation more or less distinguished, since tliis position is entirely 
the reward of his talents. Great and successful results, be they 
in writing or lecturing, these in Germany nominate the Ordinary 
professor, and an unlimited choice is atTorded in the multitude 
of young teachers. Talent, with the aid of time and perseve- 
rance, wins the prize, and that is the genuine and proper contest. 
As age and time dull the zeal and diminish ability, and the pro- 
fessor now grown old, neglects or does not advance with the 
advances of science ; an innovator in his youth, does he now 
become a loiterer, what is to be done? His hearers, ever 
attracted by the spirit of the time, desert his lectures; and seek 
those of an Extraordinary professor, or perhaps those of a pri- 
vate teacher — young and zealous, and often to excess, fond of 
innovation and bold inquiry; and the university suffers not 
through the retreat of those, who formerly served it faithfully 
and well. This happy mechanism rests on the distinction into 
extraordinary and ordinary professors, and private teachers; 
which in France correspond with the titulaires, adjoints, and 
agreges. 

Let us now only reflect how different altogether is the prac- 
tice in France. A man is put in the list of competitors for a few 
weeks, amongst such young people as frequently have not writ- 
ten two lines ; have taught scarcely a single year ; and now, 
after giving in some stated proof, are often in their twenty-fifth 
year endowed with an irrevocable title, which may be held till 
their seventieth year without doing any thing ; which, from the 
first day of their nomination to the end of their life, draws the 
same salary, whether they have many hearers or few ; whether 
they distinguish themselves or not ; whether they thenceforward 
live in ignorance, or become celebrated men ! 

Another great disadvantage in France is, that in this country 
the different faculties of which a German university is com- 
posed, are separated from each other, scattered about, and in 
this isolation are as it were, lost. Here are faculties of science, 
in which lectures upon chemistry, physics, and natural history, 
are held, without a medicinal faculty at their side, which might 
thence derive benefit; there — faculties of law, and of theology, 



AT OTHER UNIVERSITIES. 439 

without history, literature, and philosophy. So are there per- 
haps twenty miserable faculties scattered over the whole sur- 
face of France, and nowhere a genuine home for science. 
Thence comes it, that in France study is for the most part so 
unphilosophically pursued ; although able professional men are 
accomplished in jurisprudence and medicine, the studies which 
are there the most in esteem. 

We leave it to the English reader, who is better acquainted 
with the universities of his native land, than we are — to decide, 
how far the deficiencies here attributed to the French universi- 
ties also aflfect those of Britain. Oxford and Cambridge, the 
two most ancient universities of England, have remained true 
to the old institutions, to the old mode of living altogether in 
colleges, which the German public has long abandoned as not 
answering the purpose. They have a greater self-dependence 
and independence than the German ones, which are submitted 
to the superintendence of the state. Yet the German institutions 
in this respect reap many advantages, so long as the govern- 
ment is no despotism. Through such high-standing Boards, 
boards which respect the interests and claims of all parties, and 
administer to them all justice with strict impartiality, the chairs 
of science are preserved from incapacity ; the meritorious are 
made known and elevated ; obstructions are removed ; help is 
duly administered, morals are protected, defects are remedied, 
better and more effectually than can be done by a corporation 
alone, and without such a well-disposed and wise superinten- 
dence of their interests ; and which places the university in a 
condition to exercise a fresher and more unimpaired strength 
in the great pursuit of science and of accomplishment, and 
with more decisive effect; and to remain mistress of the great 
movement of inquiry and of knowledge. 

That the advantages of the German High-schools are, how- 
ever, acknowledged in England, is proved by the foundation of 
the liberal University in London in the year 1825, wherein they 
have sought to combine many of the German plans, whose 
value was recognised, with the old English ones. But yet more 
than by this fact, is paid the tribute of recognition of the excel- 



440 A PAETING GLANCE, ETC. 

lence of the German High-schools, by the great number of 
young men who, not alone from the European countries, but 
from distant regions of the earth, hasten to place themselves at 
the feet of their teachers. 

No country has so many and such excellent universities as 
Germany, — and the proofs of their advantages exist in the great 
number of illustrious learned men and authors, which quench 
their thirst of knowledge at these immortal wells of science ; 
men, whose creations daily more and more receive abroad their 
just recognition, and in no country more than in England. 



THE 



GENERAL BEER-COMMENT OF HEIDELBERG. 

Many a one is a more true Diogenes, not when he is in 
the tub, but when the tub is in him. 

TITULUS I. 

DIVISION OF THE STUDENTS AS IT REGARDS THE BEER-COMMENT. 

§ 1. All students are divided into Crass Foxes (or Fat Foxes), 
Brand Foxes, and Beer-Burschen. 

2. Every student, during the first course of his academical 
career, is a Fat Fox. 

3. He becomes a Brand-Fox when he is burnt at one of the 
regular kneips of the respective Chores, with the proper solemni- 
ties ; yet this shall not occur before the Farewell Commers of 
his first, nor later than four weeks after the entrance Commers 
of his second, semester. 

4. The Brand- Fox becomes a Beer-Bursch, if he be pawJied 
in (initiated), at the end of his second course, but after the Fare- 
well Commers, or at the commencement of his third course ; 
this, however, shall only be done in beer. 

5. Comes one here who has already studied two semesters at 
another known university, he must at the commencement of his 
third semester be here paivked in, or otherwise, till he be pawked 
in, he can only, as it regards the Beer-companies, be considered 
as a Brander. 



442 BEER-COMMENT 

6. Every one who has studied three semesters at another 
known university, has on that account the rights of a Beer- 
bursch. 

7. A Fox who is the Chore-bursch of an existing verbindung 
or union, has the rights of a Beer-bursch, yet must he suffer 
himself to be pawJced in as a Beer-bursch. 

8. The following is the mode of pawking in. At one of the 
appointed kneips of the respective Chore, the in-pawking Beer- 
bursch drinks to the in-to-be-pawked at least half a choppin of 
beer, after the singing of every strophe of a song then sung, and 
the in-to-be-pawked must a tempo drink as much. Moreover, it 
is well understood that the in-to-be-pawked pays for the beer of 
the in-pawker which is thus drunk. 



TITULUS H. 

OP THE FORE AND AFTER DRINKING. 

§ 9. From the Foxes, whether Crass or Brand Foxes, the 
Beer-bursch is not bound to take a beer challenge ; yet can the 
Brand-fox nachstiirzen (that is, command the person who is 
going to drink before him, to drink twice the quantity that he 
proposes). Amongst themselves the Foxes have equal rights. 

10. No one must accept a challenge of less than half a chop- 
pin, or more than four choppins at once. The graduated quan- 
tities of the Comment, are a half, a whole, two, three, and four 
choppins. 

11. The interval between the fore and after drinking of each 
agreed-upon quantity must be no more than five minutes (that 
is, the accepter must drink his quantity within five minutes after 
the challenger). And every earlier challenge must be drunk 
before the latter one. 

12. If four choppins are agreed upon, so must the fore- 
swearer or challenger, drink each choppin separately within 



OF HEIDELBERG. 443 

five minutes of each other ; and not till he has drunk these four 
choppins, must he take a challenge from another person. Also, 
the challenger must have first drunk his whole contracted 
quantity before his antagonist is bound to drink his. 

13. He who has a challenge of four choppins on his hands, 
is not bound to take another challenge till that is drunk out. 

14. If a challenge is made, and the challenged excuses him- 
self on the plea that he has already four choppins to drink, the 
challenger is justified in obliging the challenged to show him 
each of those four allege choppins as he drinks them. 

15. If a challenge is given, and the challenged nac/isturz, the 
quantity, (that is, insists that it shall be doubled,) the chal- 
lenger is obliged to drink the doubled quantity. 

16. The challenged may not more than double the quantity 
proposed by the challenger. 

17. The nachsturz become invalid the moment the prescribed 
quantity exceeds two choppins, except in a challenge dfaire. 

18. If one pauses during the drinking, leaves a Philistine in 
the glass, (that is, if he leaves the bottom of the glass still co- 
vered with beer,) it is to be considered that he has not drunken 
his quantity, and he must instantly drink another in the proper 
manner. 

19. The case is the same when an umpire declares that so 
much beer has been spilt in the drinking as would cover the 
bottom of the glass. 

20. In every quantity which is drunk in successive portions, 
the §§18 and 19 shall apply to the party whom the umpire shall 
have declared to have drunken informally. 

21. As well in the fore as the after drinking, the antagonist 
can select an umpire, who, if he judges that the fore or after 
quantity is deficient, must see that it is made complete, and that 
it is properly drunken. 

22. No one is bound to accept a challenge of more than one 
choppin at a time out of a vessel which will hold more ; unless 
the two drinkers agree differently between themselves. 



444 BEER-COMMENT 



TITULUS III. 

OF anschiss-saufen; or defining of what are penal cases in drinking. 

§ 23. Foxes, whether Crass or Brand Foxes, may neither 
louche an honourable Beer-bursch in beer, that is, challenge 
him to a beer contest ; nor, if he be challenged by an honour- 
able Beer-bursch, may he nachsturz, or double the quantity. If 
one of them does this, then must he be verdonnert,* or con- 
demned in thunder, to pay for a viertel, that is, sixteen choppins. 
The Foxes have also here equal rights amongst themselves. 

24. The degrees of the beer challenges are the following : — 
A Learned Man stands for a half-choppin ; a choppin is a 
Doctor ; two choppins, a Professor ; three choppins, an Amt- 
mann ; four choppins, a Pope. 

25. If any one has given his cerevis, that is, made an asser- 
tion on his beer-word against another, and it cannot be proved 
who has given his cerevis wrong, so must the two drink out a 
Learned Man — such cases, however, excepted as are before 
the Beer-court. 

26. No one is bound to accept ex abrwpto more than a 
Learned Man ; yet must the Foxes accept, ex abrupto every 
challenged Doctor, from an honourable Beer-bursch. 

27. The provoker to a beer-challenge must be challenged 
within five minutes. If he will double on the challenge, he 
must do it immediately, and according to the fixed gradations 
of § 24. 

The settling of the challenge must be completed within five 
minutes after the challenge is given ; and the drink-duel must 
be immediately contested, if the challenged has not yet an older 
scandalf to defend. 

* Literally be-thundered. 

t The cause and matter of the challenge, and the business of the strife itself till 
decided. 



OF HEIDELBERG. 445 

28. Every earlier scandal must take precedence of a later. 
If any one asserts that he has yet an earlier scandal, he must 
name the person with whom it depends. The antagonist has a 
right to name an umpire, who must take care that the scandal 
is effaced in its regular order, or otherwise the umpire must 
write the name of the first on the beer-table with the penalty 
belonging to the offence. 

29. The proceeding in fighting out a scandal is as follows : — 
Each pawkant or combatant appoints a second, of whom the 
seconder of the challenger, on his cerevis, makes the weapons 
equal. If the weapons, however, appear unequal to the othe^ 
second, he can call an umpire, who decides whether they are 
equal or not. If the umpire declares that the weapons are not 
equal, he who calls the umpire, has, after the scandal is fought 
out, to propose the proper penalty for the second who failed to 
make the weapons equal, according to § 131, No. 11 (a). 

30. At the place of the challenged the weapons are made 
equal, and the beer-scandal is there fought out. 

31. If the weapons are equal, the second of the challenged 
gives the following commando, " Seize it ! put to ! loose !" 

32. Before this commando, the drinking must not begin; ar\^ 
should it begin, either of the seconds must cry halt, and the 
weapons must be again made equal. But halt cannot be cried 
after the word " loose" is given. 

33. Both parties must drink instantly on the command being 
given, whereupon the commanding second, after both have 
drunk, first declares his judgment, and then the other second 
either admits this judgment or not. If the latter be the case, 
so the seconds themselves must drink off a Learned Man, be 
the quantity what it may for which they stood seconds, except 
in the cases stated in §§ 34 and 35. 

34. Drinks not one of the two combatants on the given com- 
mando, the prescribed quantity, or bleeds he, or pauses during 
the drinking, or leaves a Philistine in the glass ; so is he a de- 
faulter, and must, within five minutes, drink once more the 
prescribed quantity. If he do this not, he is put under the beer- 



446 BEER-COMMENT 

bann, and the quantity which he has failed to drink is written 
on the beer-tablet against him. 

35. He is equally a defaulter if he breaks his glass in setting 
it down, or overturns it, except, in the last case, he can set it 
up again before his antagonist is ready. 

36. Every one must second the moment he is called upon to 
do so ; yet if one second be a Beer-bursch, he is not obliged to 
accept a Fox as his opposite second. If any one refuses, with- 
out a sufficient ground of excuse, to become a second, he is to 
pay the penalty of a viertel. 

37. The parties concerned in a beer-scandal, must, neither 
with one another, nor with others, engage in a fresh scandal, 
neither can others engage them in such. But should this 
happen, the provoker must immediately revoke, or be con- 
demned to a viertel. 

38. The beer-scandal arising between seconds, as in § 33, is 
to be fought out in manner following: The second who de- 
clared himself first, names his umpire, before whom the scandal 
is to be fought out, and through whose declaration it is to be 
concluded. 



TITULUS IV. 



OF ENGAGEMENT A FAIRE. 

§ 39. The engagement d. faire is the contract between two 
to measure themselves in beer drinking. 

40. Those who will make an engagement d faire, must let 
this be proclaimed clearly three times by a beer-honourable 
Beer-bursch ; whereupon all who are already concerned with 
these parties in a beer-scandal, may state their claims, so that 
they may fight out their scandals with them before this new 
engagement comes on. 

41. Both combatants must, at least, empty one choppin in 



OF HEIDELBERG. 447 

every five minutes, or be the quantity greater they must still do 
the same. 

42. Neither of these combatants may accept any thing from 
a third, nor fore-drink to him ; neither may they provoke to a 
fresh scandal or be provoked to it. Those who do, fall under 
the penalty of a viertel. 

43. They may not officiate in beer-affairs; nor be seconds, 
•witness, nor umpires; nor sit in the Beer-comments, nor con- 
voke, or cause such to be convoked ; they may not aid in re- 
moving the beer-bann, or drink with him from whom it is to bo 
removed, otherwise they are condemned to a viertel. 

44. This Beer-strife is ended by one or the other declaring 
that he can drink no more, but not by agreement to drink no 
more. He that yields must quit the kneip within five minutes, 
or will be condemned to two viertel. Besides this, he is regarded 
as under the bann for the rest of the day ; but during the five 
minutes that he stays, he is not obliged to accept any fresh 
challenge. 

45. The conclusion of the Beer-strife shall in the same man- 
ner as its commencement, be loudly proclaimed by a beer- 
honourable Beer-bursch. 



TITULUS V. 



OF THE DECLARATION. 

§ 46. If any one has no desire to either fore or after drink, or 
to concern himself in beer-suits, he must cause this to be de- 
clared by a beer-honourable Beer-bursch. If from the begin- 
ning he drinks no beer at the kneip, he need not declare him- 
self. 

47. He who receives this declaration is bound to proclaim it 
aloud. 

48. The declared may not be challenged in beer. Should 
this happen, the challenger must instantly revoke, or he will be 



448 BEER-COMMENT 

condemned in a viertel. If the declarer challenges, he falls 
under the same penalty. 

49. If any one has already drunken beer in the kneip, and 
then says, without having declared himself, that he goes away, 
he must not accept a challenge. But if he remains in the kneip 
five minutes after this declaration of going away, then every 
one can fore-drink him ; and in so far as he does not after-drink 
according to the regulations, he may be mulct. 

50. Each declaration can then only be accepted, when the 
declarer has drunk out all his contracted quantities, and all 
scandals in which he has been engaged have been fought out. 

51. He who in the commencement of a kneip declares that 
he is unwell, is for the evening declared, but he cannot during 
that evening take back his declaration. 

52. If a declarer appears before the Beer-convention as a 
complainant, he must bring two witnesses. 

53. The declaration is removed :■ — • 

(1) Through fore or after drinking of any quantity, even 
should the declarer use the proviso, " without prejudice to 
my declaration." 

(2) By making a counter declaration. 

(3) By the declarer mixing himself in beer-suits. 

54. They mix themselves in beer-suits, who — 

(1) Demand or give the cerevis. 

(2) Sit in a Beer-convention ; witness, call a Beer-con- 
vention, or cause it to be called. 

(3) Is an umpire, a second in a Beer-scandal, or drinks 
with him who is to be released from the bann. 

(4) Who challenges in beer. 

(5) Who engages himself with another cifaire. 



OF HEIDELBERG. 



TITULUS VI. 



OF THE UMPIRES. 



449 



§ 55. A beer-honourable Beer-bursch only can be an umpire. 

56. Every one must obey the call to be an umpire, unless he 
can advance some available excuse. If, without being able to 
do this, he declares, he must be mulct in a viertel. 

57. If a Fox accepts the office of an umpire, he falls under 
the penalty of a viertel. 

58. The umpire may stand with none of the parties in a beer- 
scandal; but should this be the fact, the case cannot stand over, 
but another umpire must be called. 

59. When an umpire is called forth, he cannot be challenged 
of any one : the offender in this case is punishable with a viertel. 

60. If any one holds the judgment of an umpire to be unjust, 
he is at liberty to summon him before a Beer-convention ; but 
this must be done before the quantity which has been made 
equal by the umpire, is drunken. 

61. The umpire can always be called before the Beer-conven- 
tion, on account of his decisions, except when he pronounces 
the penalty incurred in the act of releasing one from the bann, 
or upon him who drinks with him ; in which case the con- 
demned person cannot appeal to a General Beer-convention. 

62. If the decision of the umpire is declared unjust by the 
Beer-convention, he goes into Beer-banishment; but if that be 
not the case his accuser is without further procedure condemned 
to Beer-banishment. 



38* 



450 BEER-COMMENT 



TITULUS VII. 



OP THE BEER-CONVENTIONS. 



(a) OF THE SPECIAL. 



§ 63. The Beer-convention is that competent Board which is 
called by a beer-honourable Beer-bursch, in order to decide 
upon a fact before it, of a nature to be punished by a beer- 
penalty, or on other beer-business. It consists of three Beer- 
honourable beer-burschen. 

64. A Fox may not sit in a Beer-convention ; if he dares to 
do that, he is to be be-thundered in a viertel. He falls under 
the same penalty if he calls a Beer-convention. 

65. So soon as a Beer-convention is called, the functionaries 
and all parties concerned must neither touche, foreswear, nor 
fore nor after drink so long as the business lasts. As little may 
this be done by another person towards them. Whoever vio- 
lates this rule is regarded as a disturber of the convention. 

66. The Beer-convention being called, is conducted as fol- 
lows. The beer-judge summons the accused ; the accuser then 
lays the case before the court, which he confirms on his cerevis, 
which the convention demands from him, and makes his peti- 
tion. Hereupon he names his witness, who is questioned on the 
alleged fact, and his cerevis also taken upon it. 

67. The accused is now required to bring forward his de- 
fence; whereupon the convention also demands his cerevis, and 
his witness is heard, also on his cerevis. 

68. Accuser and accused, as well as every one of the judges, 
have the right to demand that the witnesses of both parties state 
the facts upon which they give their cerevis, fully. 

69. When the two parties, with their witnesses, have been 
heard in this manner, the beer-judge demands whether either 
party has yet any thing further to advance. If this is not the 



OF HEIDELBERG. 45 1 

case, the minutes are closed, and the judge immediately pro- 
nounces his judgment. 

70. The beer-judges give their judgments in the same order 
of succession in which they were called to be judges by the 
accuser. The last-voting judge must, on a penalty of a viertel, 
within five minutes after the closing of the minutes, write on 
the beer-table the name of the be-thuiidered, or appellant. 

71. The agreeing judgments of two beer-judges constitute a 
sentence, with the exception of the cases in §§ 81 and 84. 

72. No beer-judge is allowed to state publicly the grounds of 
his judgment, when he gives that judgment. 

73. No beer-judge may give his vote before the examination 
is concluded, and the minutes closed. If he fails in this respect, 
either of the parties can expel him from the Beer-convent. In 
this case, the accuser has to call another judge. The same is 
the case when a beer-judge closes the minutes before the exami- 
nation is complete. If the case is disputable, the party who has 
the right to expel, may call an umpire, who shall decide. 

74. If the Beer-convention has cited the accused, and he 
omits to appear and make his defence, he is, on that account, 
held to be convicted. 

75. No one can refuse to be a beer-judge because he would' 
act as witness to the accused ; but the accused can object to a 
judge, in case he takes the office, being received as his witness, 
but this, at the latest, must be done before the examination of 
the witness of the accuser had been heard, upon which the 
accuser must choose another judge. 

76. The accuser must put in his petition before his witness is 
heard. A petition once put in, cannot be changed. If the 
accuser puts in a false one, or none at all, the case will be 
decided in favour of the accused. 

77. Every accusation must be confirmed by the witness or 
the beer-tablet. If this is not the case, the accusation is nulli- 
fied, and the accuser is nonsuited. 

78. If the assertions of both parlies are positive, the judge 
must decide in favour of the accused. 

79. An assertion is negatived when it totally contradicts the. 



452 BEER-COMMENT 

fact of the opponent without supplying another fact, which 
supersedes the first fact. 

80. Every beer-honourable student, be he Fox or Beer-bursch, 
can appear as witness before a Beer-convention. 

81. A witness becomes amenable to punishment by giving 
false evidence on his cerevis. Whether he has given a false 
cerevis remains for the Beer-convent to decide, before which 
he has appeared as witness, which, without further proceeding, 
can immediately be-thunder him as beer-banned, and mulct in 
a viertel ; but this requires that all the Beer-judges shall be 
unanimous. 

82. Each party may only call three witnesses in succession. 
If none of these speak out satisfactorily, it is to be held that he 
has no witness. For the rest, neither party can present more 
than one sufficient witness in support of its assertion. 

83. Such witnesses as were not present at the fact on which 
the Beer-convention has to decide, are held as false witnesses. 

84. Intruding witnesses ; that is, such as without being called 
by name as witnesses by the parties, offer themselves as wit- 
nesses, shall not be accepted, and are to be punished with the 
beer-bann. The judges must, however, be unanimous on this 
head. 

85. A beer-judge having once given his vote cannot recall it. 

86. No beer-judge can, during the proceedings, speak to any 
of the parties concerned, out of the regular course of inquiry. 
He who does this is punishable with a viertel. 

87. In no case is any one allowed to disturb the proceedings. 
He who does this for a fourth time, having thrice been ordered 
to be quiet, is to be be-thundered by the same Beer-convention 
to the Beer-bann, and penalty of a viertel without further delay. 
The beer-judges must, however, be unanimous. 

88. When a punishable fact is not laid before a Beer-conven- 
tion within three days, it cannot be laid at all, unless the actual 
absence of accuser or accused creates sufficient hindrance. 
But a cerevis given for a future day, or which requires time to 
prove whether it may not be false, forms an exception. Far- 
ther, a cerevis given for a future day is not nullified by a Beer- 



OF HEIDELBERG. 453 

bann falling between that time and the time for which it is 
given. 

89. A Beer-convention may only be postponed three days, 
and only then when the witness of the accused is absent. 

90. If one is accused on account of a quantity not drunken 
at the right time, or not drunken at all, the said quantity is to 
be added to the penalty in his be-thundering. 

91. If a quantity has been fore-drunken to the be-thundered, 
before the commencement of the Beer-convention, which he has 
not after-drunken, then must they who have fore-drunken this 
quantity on his be-thundering show this same quantity to the 
Beer-convention, corroborating their assertion with their cerevis 
and a witness, whereupon also this must be added to his Beer- 
penalty. 

92. The same is the case when he has contracted a beer- 
scandal with any one before the Beer-convent sate, and has not 
fought it out : but the latter party with whom he has made this 
contract, must drink the prescribed quantity before the Beer- 
convent. 

03. Not more than one Beer-convent can be called over one 
and the same person on account of the same fact, except if a 
Beer-convention is postponed ; or a Beer-convention being called, 
is rendered null by a Fox, or one under Beer-bann having been 
called upon it, and in it having sat. 

94. A Fox may neither for himself nor for another call a 
Beer-convent, but he must procure this to be done through a 
beer-honourable Beer-bursch. The last can, however, call him- 
self as one, in case other beer-honourable Beer-burschen are 
wanting for the Beer-convention. 

95. Only one Beer-convention may be called at the same time 
in the same kneip, 

(6) OF THE GENERAL BEER-CONVENTION. 

96. The general Beer-convention, which must consist at least 
of five Chore Burschen, is the highest and last Court of Appeal ; 
and therefore its decision is final and unalterable. 



454 BEER-COMMENT 

97. Every Saturday evening, at an hour fixed in the begin- 
ning of each course, is the General Beer-convention held, to 
which every Verbindung then existing in Heidelberg, must send 
a Chore-bursch, who must, however, be a beer-honourable Beer- 
bursch. Should less than five Chores exist, the S. C. must take 
care that still five beer-judges must sit in the General Beer-con- 
vention. 

98. These judges must assemble themselves, at the appointed 
hour, at the kneip of the Secretary, under the penalty of a 
quarter-crown for coming late, and of a half-crown for not 
coming at all. A beer-judge comes late when he is not present 
on the striking of the fixed hour. 

99. In case that, at the fixed hour, the Beer-judges of all the 
Verbindungs are not present, five beer-judges are sufficient, to 
open the court and proceed to business. 

100. When the required number of beer-judges are present, 
the Beer-convent must be opened with the stroke of the appointed 
hour. If they find no appellant, they must wait half-an-hour. 
If no one appears at the expiration of this time, the judges are 
authorized to withdraw. 

101. If, after the expiration of this half-hour, five judges agree 
to wait longer, they can still represent the General Beer-con- 
vention ; but the General Convention must be closed at the end 
of an hour, unless instantly occurring and pressing business 
make that impossible. 

102. It is free to the accuser as to the accused to appeal to 
the General Beer-convention, against a sentence of the Special 
Convention ; but this must be done within five minutes after the 
declaration of the sentence, and the judges concerned must be 
cited at the same time. The appeal must come on at the General 
Beer-convention, at the fixed place, the next Saturday evening. 

103. If the appellant exceeds this time, without being able to 
show the impossibility of then proceeding with the business on 
which the Beer-convention has to decide, he loses the right to 
appeal, and moreover, must pay a viertel. If on the contrary, 
one cited to appear before the General Beer-convention is pre- 
vented, he can, though a proxy, bring forward his excuse ; 



OF HEIDELBERG. 



455 



upon the acceptance of which the General Beer-convention is to 
decide. If it finds the excuse satisfactory, the business stands 
over to the next General Beer-convention. 

104. An appeal to the General Beer-convention can indeed 
be revoked, but this must be done within five minutes after 
declaring an intention to appeal, and, in fact, befoi^e a Beer- 
convention called for the purpose. If it be revoked later, the 
revoker must pay a viertel. 

105. He is excluded from the right to appeal to a General 
Beer-convent who has been declared to be a false or intruding 
witness by a special Beer-convention, and is, on that account, 
be-thundered ; and so is he also who has more than three times 
disturbed the proceedings of the Special Beer-convention. 

106. The proceedings of the General Beer-convention in 
matters laid before it, is the same as that of the Special Beer- 
conventions, with the following exceptions. If the parties cited 
before the General Beer-convention do not appear, nor appoint 
proxies, they may, after the accuser has made his complaint, 
and corroborated it by witnesses, be punished for contempt of 
court. 

(1) Moreover, any one who has to appear before the 
General Beer-convention, must present himself before the 
table with uncovered head. 

(2) No beer-judge of the General Beer-convention is 
bound to take a beer-challenge from any one while he sits 
in the General Beer-convention. 

(3) The General has the right to punish with the punish- 
ment, for the disturbance of Beer-conventions, prescribed 
by the Comment, any one who, during one and the same 
proceeding, shall have broken the silence enjoined four 
times; and he who more than four times shall have broken 
the same, shall, moreover, be reported to the S. C. and by 
it be fined a half-crown. 

107. The majority of voices decides here, as in the Special 
Beer-conventions. Is the number of the represented Chores 
equal, the representative of the Chore to which the secretary 
belongs gives the casting vote. 



4 56 BEER-COMMENT 

108. No appellant can lay his complaint before the General^ 
till he has set before it a viertel ; but, in case he carries his 
charge through, he has the right to name one of the condemned 
to the General, who shall reimburse him this viertel. 

Should the accused be be-thundered, so go they every one 
into Beer-banishment, and have two viertels to set forth ; but 
that viertel which has been reimbursed by one of them to the 
accuser is reckoned off. 

If the appellant is cast, he is equally condemned to two 
viertels. But as he has already set one viertel before the 
General, he is only written down on the beer-tablet one viertel. 
If he was the accuser before the Special Beer-convention, the 
General has to give its commission, to wipe him out from the 
beer-tablet, and to write him down as chargeable with a viertel 
under its order. If he was the accused, so must he, according 
to the commission of the General, be wiped out of the beer- 
tablet with the B. A., and with the prescribed penalty of the 
Special Beer-convention, together with the new viertel, be writ- 
ten down on the beer-tablet, under the order of the General. ■ 

The appointed penalties are written down in the Special 
Chore-kneip. 

109. During the vacation, the number of five beer-honourable 
Beer-burschen are authorized to represent a General Beer-con- 
vention, without respect to Verbindungs. Such a General 
Beer-convention in the vacation, must be called within eight 
days, or, otherwise, if no sufficient grounds of excuse are 
brought forward, the sentence of the Special Convention remains 
in full force; the appellant is be-thundered, and the right to 
further appeal is lost. 



OF HEIDELBERG 457 



TITULUS VIII. 



OF THE BEER PENALTIES. 



I, SIMPLE. 



(a) OF THE BEER-BANN. 



110. The Beer-bann is that punishment by which the beer- 
honourable student, while he is be-thundered to four choppins, 
loses all his beer-rights in the Special Kneip in which he stands 
inscribed. 

111. The Beer-bann, besides the loss of all beer-rights, has 
also this consequence, that the be-thundered, neither mediately 
nor immediately, can bring his beer to the table where the Beer- 
honourable kneip. Should he do this, every beer-honourable 
is at liberty to throw the beer of the be-thundered upon the 
ground. 

112. The beer-banned appellant, indeed, equally forfeits all 
beer-rights, yet can he bring his beer to the table where the 
beer-honourables kneip, and he may not be called a beershisser, 
or beer-banished-man, and can for and after drink with any 
beer-honourable that he can engage to do so. 

113. But on account of such quantity either for or after 
drunken, a Beer-convention cannot be called by either party. 

114. No beer-honourable is allowed to either fore or after 
drink with a beer-banned man ; does any one this, he goes into 
beer-banishment. 

115. A beer-banished man can never be called before a Beer- 
convention and be be-thundered on account of a fact which 
renders him liable to beer-banishment, but only on one which 
renders him liable to pay a viertel. He then renders himself 

39 



458 BEER-COMMENT 

liable to a viertel when he calls a beer-honourable, or a beer- 
banned appellant, a beerschisser. 

116. If any one perpetrates an act against a beerschisser, 
which renders him liable to a setting forth of a viertel, the beer- 
schisser can call this person before the Beer-convention, but he 
must do it through a beer-honourable Beer-bursch, and lay his 
complaint through the same, strengthening also his accusation 
by two beer-honourable cerevises. 

117. A term of eight days is appointed to the beerschisser 
(the beer-banned) from the day of his be-thundering, during 
which time he must cause himself to be fought-out in the follow- 
ing manner. If he exceeds this term, and that without special 
grounds of excuse, as sickness or absence, he is be-thundered 
in two viertels ; which penalty, from eight days to eight days, 
if he does not fight himself out, is doubled. 

118. The fighting out is in this manner. The beerschisser, 
who will fight himself out, requests a beer-honourable Beer- 
bursch to call his name out in the kneip on whose beer-tablet 
he stands inscribed ; but this can only be done in the presence 
of three beer-honourable Beer-burschen. The out-fighter must 
at every one of the four choppins, three times slowly and for- 
mally demand who will drink them with the beerschisser. The 
fighter-out is not an umpire. If any one is not satisfied with 
the proceedings of the fighter-out, this last must name an 
umpire. 

119. The beerschisser must from five minutes to five minutes 
drink each of the choppins. 

120. If any one announces that he will drink a choppin 
with the beerschisser, this person must name an umpire, who 
must make the weapons equal, and who, as in a Beer-scandal, 
has to command. 

Each one to be fought-out has at least two choppins to drink* 

If two out of the whole four choppins are not yet accepted* 

the fighter-out has to drink out the remaining quantity with the 

to-be-fought-out person, in the regular time, and in the presence 

of an umpire. 

121. He who, as umpire, has commanded during the last 



OF HEIDELBERG. 459 

choppin which the beerschisser, as such, drinks, must imme- 
diately proclaim him three times loudly and formally in the 
kneip as beer-honourable. 

In case the beerschisser has already drunk two choppins, and 
no one announces himself for the fourth, the fighter-out has this 
duty to perform. 

The order must, at the same time, be given, and where it is 
possible, to a Fox, to wipe the beerschisser from the beer-tablet. 

If the umpire proclaims the out-to-be-fought as beer-honour- 
able too early, or too late, he himself goes into beer-banishment. 

122. Both parties must drink at once, on tire word of com- 
mand. If the beerschisser does this not, he is be-thundered to a 
viertel ; if the other, who, according to the declaration of the 
fighter-out, has to drink with the beerschisser, drinks not at the 
same time, he goes into beer-banishment. 

123. If the beerschisser does not drink, after the command is 
given, his choppin in the five minutes, he continues a beer- 
schisser, and the choppin not drunken by him is written on the 
beer-tablet in addition. 

124. In all these cases the commanding umpire has the right 
to pronounce the penalty on the defaulters, without further pro- 
ceeding, and cause them to be written on the beer-tablet, nor 
can he for this be called to account. 

125. If one has been be-thundered on account of an unper- 
formed quantity of fore or after drinking, he must drink the 
quantity still due, from five minutes to five minutes, after he has 
again been declared beer-honourable. 

126. This must be done before those whom he has to drink 
after; or, should they be absent, before two beer-honourable 
witnesses. 

127. The beerschisser has all the choppins that have been 
drunken with him during the fighting-out by the out-fighters 
immediately to pay for. 

128. If the beerschisser has requested any one to call on him 
to be fought-out, he cannot again revoke the call ; if he does 
this, he is mulct in a viertel. 



460 ■ BEER-COMMENT 

129. The beerschisser has the right, during the pawking, or 
fighting-out, to have the beer necessary for the out-pawking 
upon the table at which the beer-honourables kneip. 

130. Only one beerschisser can be pawked-out at one time. 

131. He goes into beer-banishment — 

(1) Who gives a false cerevis. 

(2) Who offends against § 34. 

(3) Who permits a beer-touche, or provocation, to stand 
against him beyond the regular time, and neither chal- 
lenges, fixes the time, nor fights out, without having any 
sufficient grDund of excuse to give. The sufficient grounds 
are — 

(a) Older scandals, but not fore or after drinking quan- 
tities. 

(b) If he has received no beer, spite of its having been 
immediately ordered, after challenge or fixing of the time 
has taken place. 

(4) Who has declared a beerschisser, either by word or 
deed, to be beer-honourable. This happens through — 

(a) He who contracts a scandal or fights one out with a 
beerschisser, and kneips with him in beer ; that is, 

(a) He who fore or after drinks with a beerschisser. 

(§ 114). 

(b) He who has his beer standing on the same table with 
that of a beerschisser. 

(c) He who plays with a beerschisser at a beer-play. 

(d) He who with the beerschisser pours out of the same 
vessel, or drinks with him out of the same glass. 

(b) He who " catches out"* a beerschisser in the kneip, 
where the same stands inscribed as beerschisser on the 
beer-tablet. 

* In the Kneip they drink out of glasses with hds. If the user of a glass as he 
sits so far lifts up the lid that the next person can pass two fingers under, and cries 
"abgefasst," "I've caught thee out!" the person is said to be "caught out," and 
pays a penalty in beer. To avoid this, he must when he lifts his lid, say " ohne 
abzufassen," " without being liable to be caught out." 



OF HEIDELBERG. 451 

(c) He who calls a Beer-convention upon a case against 
a beerschisser, which does not render him Hable to a penalty 
of a viertel. (§ 115). 

(d) He who submits to the same a beer-case for deci- 
sion, or calls him as witness. 

(e) He who too early proclaims the fought-out, beer- 
honourable. (§ 121). 

(5) He who too late declares the fought-out, beer- 
honourable. (§ 121). 

(6) He who calls a beer-honourable, or a beer-banned- 
appellant, a beerschisser. 

(7) He who does not set out the appointed quantity 
within eight days. 

(8) He who in pawking-out a beerschisser commands 
on a bad choppin. 

(9) He who ought to drink with a beerschisser in his 
out-fighting, and does not drink at the right time, or drink 
at all. 

(10) He who makes a quantity common; that is, fore or 
after drinks a quantity with a third person also, which he 
ought to drink with one only. 

(11) The umpire whose decision before a Beer-conven- 
tion is declared to be unjust. (§ 62). 

(12) The second who has to make the weapons equal, 
but who, according to the decision of a called-up umpire, 
has unjustly declared them to be equal. 

(/) He who declares the decision of an umpire to be 
unjust without being able to show that it is so. 

(13) Intruding witness. (§ 62). 

(14) He who does not call a Beer-convention on account 
of a fact which is directed against himself, and which is 
punishable with beer-banishment. 

(15) He who does not within five minutes drink the 
quantity dictated to him by the President of the Beer-con- 
vention. (§ 146). 

39* 



462 BEER-COMMENT 



(b.) of setting forth beer. 

§ 132. Every viertel to be set out (that is, four measures, four 
jugs, or five bottles) is written down on the beer-tablet, and 
must within eight days, be set before a Beer-convention. He 
who exceeds this term, goes into beer-banishment. The Beer- 
convention which has be-thundered him, has at the same time 
to give the order that he and this quantity be wiped off the beer- 
tablet, and that he be written down anew under this date. 

133. The Beer-convention, and he who sets it out, have 
equally participation in this beer, and should the setter-out be a 
Fox, he too, who called the Beer-convention for him ; but the 
Beer-convention can, if it please, make this quantity over to the 
General company. 

134. A viertel must set-out — 

(1) The Fox who touches, or provokes a beei'-bursch to 
a challenge in beer, or in a beer-challenge doubles on 
him. (§ 23.) 

(2) The Fox who has called a Beer-convention, or sits 
in one. (§ 64.) 

(3) The Fox who becomes an Umpire. (§ 64.) 

(4) The Fox who touches the beer-cudgel of the Presi- 
dent in a Beer-commers. 

(5) Every one who, being called on to second, refuses 
without sufficient ground. (§ 36.) 

(6) He who offends against § 37. 

(7) He who offends against §§ 42 and 43. 

(8) He who touches in beer a Declarer, and does not 
immediately revoke the touche. (§ 48.) 

(9) A Declarer who touches another who has not de- 
clared. (§ 48.) 

(10) He who refuses without justifiable ground to act as 
umpire. (§ 48.) 



OF HEIDELBERG. 463 

(11) He who cribs beer in drinking, or spills the beer of 
another, or fouls it. 

(12) He who forgets his Smollis.* 

(13) He who touches an Umpire, knowing him to be 
such. 

(14) He who insults or calumniates a Beer-convention. 

(15) He who declares the decision of a Beer-convention 
to be unjust; but this shall not include the appeal to a 
General. 

(16) The Beer-judge who offends against § 34. 

(17) He who declares that he will appeal to a General, 
and yet does it not on the proper day. (§ 103.) 

(18) He who has declared that he would appeal to a 
General, but makes this later than five minutes after his 
declaration. (§ 104.) 

(19) The beerschisser who sits in Beer-convention, or at 
all acts in beer-suits. 

(20) The beerschisser who, after he has allowed himself 
to be called upon to be fought-out, revokes. (§ 128.) 

(21) The beerschisser who in the fighting-out does not 
drink in time. (§ 122.) 

(22) The beerschisser, who calls a beer-honourable or 
beer-banned- Appellant, a Beerschisser. (§ 115.) 

(23) He who alters or writes down any thing on the 
beer-tablet, or expunges any thing, without the right to do 
it. (§ 136.) 

(24) He who writes down, by his own fault, the name 
of the be-thundered, or of the accuser-appellant, wrong. 
(§ 139.) 

(25) The be-thundered or accuser-appellant who pur- 
posely spells his name wrong to the writer-down. (§ 139.) 

(26) He who, indeed, writes down the name of the be- 
thundered, or of the accuser-appellant on the tablet correct- 
ly, but who states a false date or a false quantity. 

* His agreement with another to thee and thou, and, forgetting it, addresses 
him as you. 



464 BEER-COMMENT 

(27) He who does not convey the commission of writing 
down or expunging within five minutes. 

(28) Every one whose duty it is to write down or ex- 
punge from the tablet, and does not do this within five 
minutes. 

(29) He who gives to another without due authority, an 
order to alter, or to write down upon, or to expunge any 
thing from the tablet. (§ 138.) 

(30) He who does not call a Beer-convent upon a fact 
which renders liable to the setting-forth of a viertel. 

(31) When one is caught-out — that is, if he lifts the lid 
of a covered glass (and jugs and bottles are also includ- 
ed) in which so much beer yet remains as will cover the 
bottom, so far that another can insinuate his hand between 
the vessel and the lid, and thereupon cry " caught-out ;" or 
when one is caught-out who covers an empty glass, though 
this latter person is under no necessity to cover the empty 
glass again. 

(32) He who catches out without cause — that is, he who 
catches one out, who in the lifting of his lid has said — 
" without catching-out ;" or who, while the beer is pouring 
puts his hand between ; or who makes an erroneous catch- 
ing-out with an empty glass. 

(33) He who speaks ill of any of the Faculties. 



II. SHARPER BEER PENALTIES. 

§ 135. The sharper beer-penalty is, when any one is be-thun- 
dered at the same time to more than one viertel, or to beer- 
banishment and beer-setting-forth. 



OF HEIDELBERG. 455 



(a) HE IS CONDEMNED TO MORE THAN ONE VIERTEL, 

(1) Who offends against § 44. 

(2) The accuser who, going before the General, fails to 
make good his accusation, and is mulct in two viertels. 
(§ 108). 

(3) The Beerschisser, who does not cause himself to be 
fought-out within the proper period, falls under the penalty 
of§ 117. 



(b) THEY ARE CONDEMNED TO BEER-BANISHMENT AND BEER SETTING-FORTH : 

(1) False witnesses. (§ 81.) 

(2) Those who disturb the proceedings of the Beer- 
convention for the fourth time, either by speaking, crying 
out, singing, or whispering to one another, after silence 
has been three times commanded. (§§ 87 and 106.) 

(3) All those who act contrary to § 65. 



(C) THEY ARE CONDEMNED TO THE SETTING OUT OF TWO VIERTELS AND TO BEER- 
BANISHMENT. 

(1) The Beer-judges whom the General Beer-convention 
reproves. 

(2) He who abuses this Beer-comment, or alters any 
thing in it. 



466 BEER-COMMENT 



TITULUS IX. 



OF THE BEER-TABLET. 



§ 136. In every special kneip a Beer-tablet is to be hung up; 
upon which the names of Beerschisser, Viertel-out-setters, and 
Accuser-appellants are written, under different rubrics, with 
addition of their respective dates and quantities. 

137. No one may write any thing upon the Beer-tablet, alter, 
or expunge any thing, who has not received a commission to 
that purpose, from a beer-judge, an umpire, a president of a 
beer-commers, or from one who has declared the Beerschisser 
to be Beer-honourable. 

138. He who has received the commission for expunging or 
writing down, must do this within five minutes : otherwise he is 
be-thundered in a viertel. He who gives an unauthorized com- 
mission falls under the same penalty. But in this case, he who 
has received the commission to write down or expunge, is not 
punishable. 

139. If any one has received a commission to write down a 
be-thundered in the Beer-tablet; but the be-thundered declares 
that he shall appeal to the general Beer-convention, the writer- 
down must note this by the addition of the two letters B. A. 
under the name of the be-thundered. So also the writer-down 
must place in the proper rubric him who has proceeded as 
accuser before a special Beer-convention, and declare that he 
will appeal to a General one. 

140. Every one who has received a commission to write any 
one down in the Beer-tablet, has a right to ask the same how 
he writes his name, whereupon that person must clearly spell it 
out to him. If the commissioner does not ask the name of the 
to-be-written-down, or has this person spelt his name out rightly 



OF HEIDELBERG. 467 

to him, and he yet, in both cases, write it down wrong, he is 
thereupon be-thundered in a viertel, without in this case the one 
to-be-written-down being freed from his penalty. But if the 
to-be-written-down gives him his name wrong, then he falls 
under the penalty. 

141. He who has written down any one with authority on 
the Beer-tablet, and has written him down wrong, is to be 
called before a future Special Beer-convention. This Beer- 
convention has to take care that the fault of him who received, 
the commission be amended. 

[The remainder of this Beer-Comment is given in the chapter 
describing a Commers.] 



THE END. 



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